Diet Tips: Top 5 Healthy Snacks for Triathletes, by Ben Greenfield

Question: Now that we're in the middle of triathlon season, I'm finding myself absolutely craving more calories in between meals, especially from "crunchy" foods, like cracker mixes and banana chips. Are these type of foods healthy for snacking?

Answer: Great question. While your body "crying for calories" is often a sign that you *should* be increasing overall food intake, you need to be careful with the type of things you may be consuming along with your "healthy" snack foods.

Take your banana chips, for example. Just two large handfuls of banana chips can guarantee that you’ve just eaten 2 entire bananas that have been dipped and drenched in 100+ calories of oil, and often powdered with fructose sugar. Of course, if you purchase your banana chips raw and unseasoned, or make them yourselves in a fruit drier, that is an options, albeit more expensive or logistically challenging.

And those packaged cracker mixes or trail mixes? Typically a similar story - lots of added vegetable oils to make them taste good and preservatives to make them last long on the shelf.

Ultimately, the problem is that most of the pre-packaged crunchy treats on the market are drenched in some type of substance that makes them "taste good" (typically an oil or salt derivative). So what is the healthy athlete to do? Here are my top 5 good substitutes for crunchy cravings:

-Seasoned raw almonds (I personally prefer a few dashes of chili pepper and sea salt ­ just shake everything together in a tupperware or ziplock back and consume as your own healthy snack mix.)

-Jikama strips (large round crunchy vegetable in produce aisle) or mini-carrots, lightly salted and dipped into salsa, hummus or guacamole

-Gum (yes believe it or not, gum, although chewy, often satisfies crunch cravings)

-Cucumbers with a high quality sea salt, like fleur de sel

-Crunchy gluten-free crackers. There are many brands out there. Here’s the ingredient label of one: Organic Golden Flaxseed, Organic Hemp Meal, Organic Agave Syrup, Nutritional Yeast, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Rosemary, Celtic Sea Salt. This particular brand is "Foods Alive Hemp Organic Flax Gluten-Free Crackers". Just be careful, as there are 150 calories in 5 crackers, whereas you could crunch on jikama practically all day long...

Hopefully this helps. I just put the finishing touches on a book called "Holistic Nutrition for Ironman Triathletes". It's a comprehensive guide to fueling with the thousands of calories necessary for endurance sports, *without* destroying your body. You can find the book over at http://www.mindsettriathlon.com.

To Your Health,
Ben Greenfield

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About the expert:

Ben Greenfield is recognized as one of the top fitness, triathlon, nutrition and metabolism experts in the nation. In 2008, he was voted as the Personal Trainer of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, an internationally recognized and respected certifying agency. Ben is Director of Sports Performance and oversees the physiology and biomechanics laboratory at Champions Sports Medicine in Spokane, WA, which offers metabolic-based weight loss, bicycle fitting, running gait analysis, swim stroke analysis, VO2 max testing, blood lactate testing, resting metabolic rate analysis, and other cutting-edge procedures for weight loss and performance.

Ben hosts the highly popular fitness, nutrition and wellness website at www.bengreenfieldfitness.com, which features blogs, podcasts, and product reviews from Ben. In addition to coaching and training for weight loss and sports performance at http://www.pacificfit.net, Ben serves as a business and marketing consultant to fitness professionals, and is the host of a weekly syndicated fitness business blog and podcast at http://www.trainfortopdollar.com. E-mail: ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com

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Comments

[Mike Ethan]

Thanks for sharing tips. Many people are trying to reduce their weight. Your information will be useful to people who like to reduce their weight. There are many online e-books are also available for tips to reduce the body weight. I have used real6packs e-book. Real6packs e-book containing easy steps to follow for maintain body fitness.

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[Kate]

Really interesting tips. I do love the almonds and cucumbers, I am now able to without salt too, it took me a while to get used to though.