Healthy Snacks?

There are a few snacks / meals that I'm a real fan of and I *think* they're fairly healthy but I'm not certain. So if anyone could give me some advice that would be great

1. Tin of Heinz beans (the low salt & sugar ones) on wholemeal toast (2 slices) with a bit of low fat margerine and some grated mozzerella. Sometimes with a bit of HP sauce
2. Egg sandwich: 3 or 4 eggs (egg whites only) on wholemeal bread, with low fat marg
3. Alpen Fruit & Nut bars
4. Bread in general: I get Hovis wholemeal granary bread which is only 1g of fat per slice, but I hear eating too much bread is a bad idea? I find it hard to eat anything without bread but I try to limit myself to around 2 - 4 slices a day
5. Low fat marg and low fat salad cream (both from Tesco): I love these on jacket potatoes with tuna!

I think that pretty much covers it. Any advice would be great

I would class number 3 as a snack and the others would be options for lunch

It all depends on what the rest of your diet looks like

2-4 slices a day of bread I would be looking to substitute for something else, that all adds up over a week

Thanks for the advice.

I tend to class most of them as lunch options too to be honest. A typcal day for me would be something along the lines of:

• 2 protein shakes
• tuna jacket potato
• Chicken fillet with frozen veg + half a pack of Uncle Ben's wholegrain rice
• Beans & mozerella on toast
• Bowl of Ready Brek
• Egg sandwich (as mentioned before)
• Lots of green tea!
• couple of bananas and one or two oranges
• ...not in that order exactly

I am currently trying to build muscle with resistence training and taking in lots of protein. But I like to keep fit on the treadmill too and am trying to limit fat / sugar intake in my diet.

From a quick glance I would add some fruit ...Salad and more veg

they could form a good basis for snacks

Ahaa!   You snuck the fruit in on an edit 

You need (IMO) lots more colour  !

haha, yup, kept editing it as I remembered things!

Thanks again, I do like a nice bit of salad so I think I'll get some more of that in there

Do you think, calorie-wise, my meals look okay? Or are there any bits I should avoid? Like the low-fat salad cream?

Personally I would struggle to eat all that in a day 

I am not qualified to judge you or your calories, I know nothing about you or your exercise intake

Simple rules for me, keep it colourful and keep it as close to its natural state as possible and keep it balanced

Personally I would get my protein from something like mackerel rather than 2 (??!!) protein shakes ina  day  

Egg white only sandwich!!! Stop using 3-4 egg whites and use 1-2 whole eggs instead.

Personally none of it sounds very healthy. Though that wouldn't stop me eating it.

1) why 'low fat margarine'? Nothing healthy in that.!!  It's an artificial industrial product and is about as healthy as eating engine oil from a car. Slight exaggeration, but seriously margarine and health shouldn't be in the same sentance.
2) See 1). Also why are you dumping the yolks, that's where the goodness is!
3) Fine, but not nothing special. 
4)You seem to have serious issues with eating fat! It's good for you!!!
Buy  Good calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes as a starting point to getting some alternative ideas.
5) Sound's pretty unhealthy. Most things labeled as 'low fat', use sugar as a subsitute. A jacket potato is a massive hit of carbs. The tuna's ok, though sardines would be better.

Nothing is wrong with it ... but 4 slices a day may be excessive 

I do agree with anything labelled 'lowfat' (usually) needs to be avoided !

Low fat schmoe fat, I tweak the nose of low fat and run the other direction.  There's nothing wrong with natural fat as long as you're eating a balanced diet.  I genuinely avoid anything labelled low fat and low sugar.  Full sugar drinks as well, I drink Coke etc. so rarely that when I have one it will always be full sugar, don't get me started on aspartame and the like

• Margarine - personally don't touch it with a barge pole, butter all the way
• Eggs - Agree with others - Just have 2 proper eggs instead of dumping the goodness of the yolks
• Get your protein from natural healthy sources (nuts, fish, eggs, chicken) - Dump the artificial protein shake malarchy - why do so many people buy in to the marketing hype?
• Milk - Full fat all the way, been drinking it since the days of getting the wee glass bottles free in school (those were the days!).  Milk is the best recovery drink you can take - Don't buy into any of that high cost (and high sugar) sports recovery stuff, milk it's natural and it's good for you!
• Bread - Love making it love eating it - Can see perhaps why if you're trying to lose some weight that you might not want to eat a load of bread every day, but a couple of slices a day is perfecty fine - assuming you're not loading it with jam/chocolate spread etc.

+1 for pretty much all the advice here.. generally full fat products are much healthier than the low fat versions. With eggs most of the good stuff, including half the protein, is in the yolk. I think shakes are fine but only if you really need them.. you should get enough from your food and only have a shake after a really tough session. 2 a day is more than you can probably process. It all seems very low on veg. As Meldy says, keep it colorful.

I'm honestly amazed that you can eat all that in one day! I agree with Meldy - make it colourful! I'd also steer clear of protein shakes but i guess it depends on hoy much you're doing.

Ditto for full fat all the way and definately butter all the way. You need some fat on you to keep you healthy many vitamins are fat soluble and I read somewhere (please double check me someone) that you are likely to over eat other things like carbs and protein which would in itself pose other risks. So if you're not eating lumps of butter try avocado (slice it up in a salad/make guacamole), nuts and seeds too.

As far as bread goes, a while back I switched from eating mainly white bread to eating mainly wholemeal with various seeds in the slices.  I find that a sandwich made with that bread keeps me going for a lot longer than one with white bread.

In fact, recently, I've had very little bread at all - I've taken to eating a banana for lunch instead; doesn't sound much, but I find it does me.   For the first time in my entire life, I'm eating way more fruit than chocolate or other sweet snacks and this, combined with daily 1hr session on exercise bike, and 5k runs three times a week will get rid of this damn external fuel tank that's been hitching a ride on my abs for too long!

Agree with all the advice, and that these look more like lunch options than snacks. A snack would be a banana, or if you are hungry a banana and an apple.

For snacks, I personally make my own trail mix with lots of nuts and various dried berries that I keep by my desk. I put in some yummy bits like yoghurt or chocolate coated raisins to keep it interesting. I also have a fruit bowl by my desk at home when I'm working there. Naughty snacks I keep in the kitchen - that way it is easier to eat the healthy things that get up and find the junk.

I just wanted to add that, while bread is not the root of all evil, it can be surprisingly high in salt - so check labels and try to choose carefully as there is no point in having a good healthy varied diet and then undoing all the hard work by overdosing on salt.

A few snacks I like of varying degress of healthiness

Wholemeal Pitta Bread with homous and salad, maybe throw in a bit of feta cheese

Oatcaks with whole earth Peanut Butter and or/ sliced apple.

Olives

Mixed nuts, chopped

Banana/Orange/other piece of fruit

Just want to say...although i have nothing constructive to say here, this is a really good thread. Its made me think twice about some of the rubbish i eat. Natural all the way from now on

Cheers