Shame free snacking

The place where most people fall down when attempting to cut their calories, or their waist lines, is snacking. It doesn't help that all the health and diet advice out their recommends fruit and nuts as their low calorie snack replacements. The majority of us crave high fat high sugar snacks and a handful of fruit and nuts, nutritious as they are, just do not seem to cut it! So here are my top six alternative snacks which will satisfy those junk food cravings without hurting your diet:

1) Ben and Jerry's Frozen Yoghurt.

This is the highest calorie out of my top six snacks but at 180 calories and 5g of fat per 100g (Stawberry Shortcake Flavour) its a far cry from the 280 calories and 15g of fat in the same flavour of ordinary Ben and Jerry's ice cream! Not only is sinfully low in fat but it tastes delicious, every bit as good as the real icecream. I haven't experimented with other brands, being a Ben and Jerry's girl at heart, but if you're in the mood for ice cream any frozen yoghurt is going to be a much healthier alternative.

2) Metcalfes Topcorn

Now plain popcorn isn't particularly unhealthy for you anyway, but once you start adding all those delicious flavourings the calories, and the fat, soon add up. Most frustratingly, most bags of popcorn claiming to be low cal, say 100 calories per serving, contain about 5 servings in a bag. I really struggle with will power with popcorn, once the bag is open i will eat the entire bag regardless of how many servings in it! Metcalfes Topcorn is perfect then because when it says 108 calories per serving it means 108 calories per bag. I enjoy the salted flavour but for around ten calories more you can get salted sweet which is equally irresistible. It's delicious, hits those cravings, and is very unlikely to make you pile on the pounds.

3) Snack a Jacks

Sticking with the salty theme, i frequently crave crisps but can never justify there high fat quantity. Snack a Jacks are the perfect alternative boasting only 7% fat and with the majority of their flavours coming in at under 100 calories a bag. My personal favourite is the salt and vinegar which never fails to satisfy however, experiment to find the flavour that best hits your crisp cravings!

4) Weightwatchers Dessert Flavour Yoghurts

At under 60 calories a pot these yoghurts were an absolute god send to me when i found them. They taste like heaven. They're little pots of goodness tasting almost exactly like the desserts they attempt to mimic. The Rhubarb crumble flavour left me feeling as guilty as if i'd eaten a real crumble, but at 56 calories and most significantly only 0.1 grams of fat these yoghurts are far from the guilt trip their dessert alternatives would be!

5) Options Hot Chocolate

When i'm really craving a sweet treat and a chocolate fix, which lets be honest every girl does on a regular basis, there is nothing better than an options hot chocolate. If you make them with water they are only 38 calories, however, i see no harm in adding a dash of skimmed milk to cream it up a tiny bit. I mean who is counting calories here? Embarrassingly my favourite thing to do with this drink is eat it out of the mug with a spoon like chocolate soup to really make the satisfaction last longer! The mint flavour is my personal favourite but orange is also incredible and butter scotch is certainly worth a taste!

6) Hartley's Jelly

These jellies really are a wonder coming in at just 10 cal a pot. I was incredibly ambiguous buying them as surely no dessert can taste good for 10 calories. I was even warned that they were lacking in sweetness and flavour which is obviously to be expected for 10 calories. But boy were the critics wrong. I can taste very little difference between these little pots and real jelly and i seriously wonder why anyone would ever opt for the high calorie alternative!


I will be transferring this post to its own page in due course so that as i discover more incredible low calorie, low fat snack replacements i can add them to the list for you all to see. In the mean time, if any of you have any nuggets or discoveries of your own please drop me a line and i will add them to the list!