Slim Down with Green Snacks

Here's a simple way you can start living greener, and get slimmer in the process.

Reach for low-carbon-footprint snacks, suggests nutrition expert Kate Geagan, MS, RD, author of Go Green Get Lean. Eco-friendly snacks with short ingredients lists and minimal processing tend to be not only more earth-friendly but also more waist-friendly, she writes.

6 Great Low-Carbon Choices
Geagan says the ideal snack should have about 100 to 175 calories. (Learn the secret to stopping out-of-control snack attacks.) They should also have just a few ingredients, have little packaging, and take minimal amounts of resources to produce (that tends to mean less processing). Here are a few of her favorites:

• 3/4 cup of edamame pods with a pinch of sea salt
• 1 tablespoon cashew butter spread on 1 cup of apple slices
• 3 cups of air-popped popcorn
• 6-inch whole-wheat tortilla with 1/4 cup of black beans and 2 tablespoons of fresh salsa
• 1 cup of organic, local fat-free milk (or soymilk), steamed, with one teaspoon of almond extract and one tablespoon of dark cocoa powder
• 10 dark chocolate chips and 10 walnut halves

Snacking Drawbacks
Eating snacks made as close to home as possible helps the earth, too, writes Geagan. And the problem with oh-so-popular snack favorites -- those perfectly portioned 100-calorie snack packs? They tend to contain long lists of non-nourishing filler ingredients, and they often come from far away, where lots of human and environmental resources were used to produce them. Find out which processed-food ingredients you should avoid.