Help me find healthy snacks!

[sambababy]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this post...

Basically my diet is really high in sugar. I eat fairly healthy meals and lots of fruit, but also lots of fruit juice and LOADS of snacks. I'm breastfeeding and it gives me an almost insatiable hunger (plus boredom -no offence to my children but sometimes being a SAHM just makes me eat) so I snack all day long. The problem is I snack on biscuits, crackers, cashew nuts, bread, cereal bars, naked-type fruit bars, fruit....

I don't have a weight problem but I'm worried about the amount of sugar I'm eating. I'm not sure what healthy, easy to grab alternatives to have instead??

Also I can't eat dairy at the moment due to DS milk allergy.

Well one of the reasons you eat too much is the night feeds (we don't secrete the hormone that makes us feel full after eating when we've had a wakeful night).

I wouldn't worry too much, maybe eat some ,crunched up ryvitas with marmite and sugar free pnut butter and a bit of olive oil instead of butter. And tofu yogurt with spices like cinnamon, ginger nutmeg and molasses or m apple syrup as a more healthy sweetener.

Maple syrup!

I like a spell crunchyt cereal you can get in good Health food shops with soya or almond milk too with molasses.

Spelt cereal flakes!

How about oatcakes and some nut butter, or rice cakes and philadelphia?

Cut out the fruit bars and try and apple instead.
Or big bowl of berries with Greek yoghurt.

Ppeatfrog that's insteresting, I never knew that!

I'll have to see if I can find tofu yoghurt or almond milk (living abroad). The only soy milk I found was vanilla flavour, full of sweetener, it was nasty.

Thank you for these suggestions!

Are you drinking enough water? You could just be thirsty instead of hungry?

ppeatfruit sorry to have called you frog... That's another side effect of the night wakings.

HeyMacWey I could probably be drinking more. I'll try to remind myself. I've always been terrible at recognising thirst.

Can't have dairy though so the cheese and yoghurts are out :( I could try making nut butter. It sucks living in a country where this stuff isn't readily available in normal supermarkets!

You could make your own almond milk and have it warm with weetabix or make porridge with it , raw carrots with hummus , crackers with tomatoes and avocado , eat things high in protein too that will help you feel full

sambabay Where do you live? I can get those in things in Fr. where I live for 50% of the time.. Maybe go on line for them?

Popcorn is good if you are eating because your bored, try it with paprika

Yes agree with the pp who said have water and herbal teas first before eating in case you're thirsty. I remember being told to drink lots when I was bf.

They do lovely salt and sweet popcorn too now.

I'm right there with you - breast feeding and hungry all the time and just wanting sweet food. I've start trying to make a bigger pasta based lunch to fill me up for longer. Snacks are so difficult though, I've bought some oatcakes but so far they've just sat in the cupboard...

Am also breastfeeding and insanely starving. I'm making a conscious effort to eat bigger meals - lunches especially - in a bid to cut out sugary snacks and pointless crsp in between. It's mostly working so far. My lunch today was the most obscenely large ham roll, like a massive granary roll with at least twice the amount of thick cut butchers' ham a normal person would eat. Honestly, it was double what you'd normally have (and I always go for big portions, I'm really no little nibbler who survives off a few crusts!) but it saw me through till dinner, other than picking at a few cherry tomatoes while I cooked elder DC's dinner. I figure it has to be better than stuffing 500+ calories of sugary biscuits while I cook dinner!

I'm glad I'm not the only one going mad with hunger! I actually eat pretty big meals already. I normally have a 3 egg omelette for breakfast and a fresh juice, then I have 2 big meals at lunch and dinner time. I'm living in Brazil and they don't get the concept of a sandwich as a meal!

I've made hummus before (can't find that in a regular supermarket here either), I should do that again and freeze some. Does anyone know how long tahini keeps in the fridge after opening?

Try eating more protein and fat rather than sugar.

So:

Peanut butter and apple
Hard boiled eggs
Fruit compote
Cold chicken /ham/smoked salmon
Nuts

You could also make a big batch of veg and lentil soup and snack on that, or eat before meals?

Have a large salad and or veg crudités with each meal.

Yes good ideas, macadamias are expensive but they take a lot of chewing and fill you up (I used to take some to work with me with fruit and water).