Calorie Trap Snacks: A few nuts here, a piece of chocolate there, or a few gummy bears – we eat a lot on the side throughout the day. And take on a lot of extra calories. We’ll show you which snacks are real calorie bombs.
Everyone knows that chocolate, pizza or cake have a lot of calories. But there are plenty of other foods we eat on the side that belong to the “calorie trap snacks” category. Not everything that says organic, healthy or low-fat delivers what it promises. For example, would you have guessed that the oh so healthy dried fruit is not so harmless in its sugar and, therefore, calorie content? And nuts also have a lot of hidden calories because of their high-fat content.
Calorie Trap Snacks: Snacking Is Allowed – But With Care
When the desire for a small snack arises every day after breakfast or lunch, many reach for chocolate and co. There is nothing wrong with two pieces of chocolate, and five gummy bears are also perfectly fine. But it should stay that way!
So that you don’t reach into the sweets box again, you should pack away the sweets immediately afterwards and don’t take them out again. Please don’t put an open pack on your desk within easy reach because you’ll unconsciously grab it until it’s empty.
It Would Be Best If You Also Kept These Things In Mind When Snacking:
- There should be three hours between each meal. Our insulin level is consistently elevated if we snack constantly, and fat burning doesn’t get going.
- Do not eat snacks while walking or standing, preventing the body from recognizing the snack as a meal.
- Anyone who has already treated themselves to a piece of cake with their coffee should save on calories with their main meals.
- You can usually fight your appetite with a special tea, cappuccino, chewing gum or a piece of fruit.
These Nine Snacks Are Nasty Calorie Traps
Calorie Trap Dried Fruit
Fruit is healthy, which could be more evident than eating a few dried fruits if you have an appetite for something sweet and want to do something good for your body. This idea is, of course, correct in its approach. It is better than reaching for raisins or dried apple rings instead of chocolate and gummy bears. But it would be best if you did not underestimate the calories that dried fruit has.
While 100 grams of bananas only have 88 calories, 100 grams of dried bananas have a good three times as many calories. How can that be? The fructose is to blame! If the water is removed from the fruit during the drying process, it remains highly concentrated.
Our Tip: Reach for dried fruit from time to time. Just keep in mind that they are hidden calorie bombs. A fresh apple or a banana is often the better alternative.
Calorie Trap Nuts
Hazelnuts, peanuts, cashews or almonds – the variety in the snack area is quite significant when it comes to nuts. They are also available in various variants, from pure to salted to roasted, caramelised in sugar or a savoury coating.
Once opened, the pack is half empty in no time, for example, when you eat it comfortably in front of the television. Unfortunately, nuts are real calorie bombs. Because they contain a lot of fat, it is vegetable and therefore good fat. However, it would be best to dig too deep into your nutshell. On average, 100 grams of nuts have about 600 calories—the macadamia nut’s top performer, with 687 calories per 100 grams.
Our Tip: Prefers natural nuts and try peanuts or pistachios in the shell. By cracking the nuts, you eat a lot less.
Calorie Trap Smoothies
If you fancy an extra portion of fruit, you can grab a smoothie. But be careful: the juices have significantly more calories than the fruit as a whole! This is due to fructose, which is often added as an extra.
But even without the little extra sugar, smoothies even have a higher sugar content than the comparable amount of cola due to the fructose: 100 ml smoothie contains around 12 grams of sugar, 100 ml cola has around 10.7 grams.
Our Tip: Better to use fresh fruit. Should it be a smoothie, take a close look at the packaging and only use smoothies with no added sugar, colouring or preservatives, or those that are half fruit pulp or puree
Calorie Trap Cookies
Biscuits are classic when it comes to a small afternoon snack. According to personal preferences, double biscuits, butter biscuits or chocolate biscuits are conjured up from the desk drawer or the sweets cabinet. The afternoon low has to be overcome somehow.
If it stays with a biscuit, then everything is good. But let’s be honest, when does it stop at just one cookie? We should be a little careful there. After all, a single sandwich biscuit with a chocolate filling already has 117 calories! And even a whole grain biscuit with chocolate has almost 50 calories.
Our Tip: Russian bread is comparatively low in calories, with 390 calories per 100 grams, because it contains hardly any fat.
Calorie Trap Sandwich
Once again, no time for nothing and still hungry? Many people opt for a hearty sandwich if there is a baker nearby. After all, it’s not that big and looks healthy thanks to the lettuce leaves and tomatoes.
However, the impression is usually deceptive. Depending on the size and type of bun and topping, this snack from the baker can have between 400 and 500 calories. Not bad for a snack! The reason for this: The rolls are usually spread thickly with butter and remoulade, and the toppings are not stingy either. So two slices of cheese are put on the roll, where one would have been enough.
Our Tip: If possible, have the roll freshly topped according to your wishes and do without butter and remoulade. That alone can save you a few calories.
Calorie Trap Salami Snack
Mini salamis are a popular snack for anyone who likes to eat heartily. And what our mothers gave us for school trips can’t be wrong, can it? A mini salami of 25 grams does not have that many calories, around 130 kcal. This works out. However, a large part of it is fat, namely 12 grams, which is a lot for a snack.
Our tip: Fancy a hearty snack? Instead, reach for lean turkey sausage or boiled ham. For example, 100 grams of cooked ham has only 125 calories and 4 grams of fat.
Calorie Trap Crackers
You think you’re doing yourself a favour and opting for crackers instead of chips while watching TV in the evening and then this. A close look at the nutritional information reveals that 100 grams of crackers have 442 calories, just under 100 calories fewer than chips! Even if crackers fare significantly better in terms of fat content, they still belong in the category of low-calorie snacks.
Our Tip: Pretzel sticks are better than chips and crackers. The lean pretzel has only 0.5 grams of fat per 100 grams and only 336 calories.
Calorie Trap Yoghurt
Yoghurt is healthy, fruit too – then a fruit yoghurt is twice as healthy. Wrong thought! Most fruit yoghurts that you can buy at the supermarket have lots of artificial sugar. In addition, they usually contain more calories than you might think: a 200 g strawberry yoghurt, for example, has 28 grams of sugar and 204 kcal.
Our Tip: conjure up your DIY fruit yoghurt from low-fat natural yoghurt and fresh fruit. It’s super tasty, and you know what’s in it.
Calorie Trap Granola Bars
A quick muesli bar for the little hunger in between? Caution! At first glance, muesli bars seem incredibly healthy, but there is an incredible amount of fat and sugar in the bars, and many are also coated with chocolate or nuts.
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