[soc_panel color=”blue”]By: Unber Shafiq[/soc_panel]

Throughout the history of ‘eat this, not that,’ people have been inundated with tons of informative content on diets and lifestyle. Each new eating food & diet trend comes with promises like losing weight, eliminating acne, hunger control, reducing disease risks, and even getting pregnant.

The grapefruit diet from the seventies to the goop detox diet of 2016, we have repeatedly been told how this diet works, and the other doesn’t. The missing element, however, has been the food which alone is not capable of fulfilling those promises.

Clean eating, on the other hand, is not a diet trend, but an eating style that ensures the quality of your food. It does not take into account the amount and timings of food eaten.

So, if you want to go overboard on food, you may do so. This article is not to lecture you on how to lose weight or how much you should eat in a day. It just gives you some better eating options in comparison to processed food that is loaded with sugar, salt, and so many chemicals that your body does not need.

28 Clean Eating Snacks You Can Eat on the Go

We know that a change in behavior is driven both by external and internal motivation. Stocking clean eating food items in the pantry will help you refrain from processed and unhealthy food

Here are 28 clean eating snacks that you can eat on the go. Mentioned along with each snack is also a recipe to help you have more variations and flavor.

1. Hardboiled egg

Maybe not your favorite food item, but eggs are incredibly nutritious. In fact, they are among one of the most nutritious foods on earth.

From a variety of vitamins to folate, selenium, calcium, zinc, and phosphorus, eggs contain almost all that you need. These nutrients come alongside 77 calories, 5 grams of healthy fats and 6 grams of proteins.

How to get all these nutrients if you don’t like a hardboiled egg as an individual food? Here’s a clean and super easy recipe to make a salad from hardboiled eggs.

List of ingredients you’ll need is given below.

• Hardboiled egg (chopped)
• Whole grain mustard
• Lemon juice
• Paprika
• Chopped celery and chives
• Lettuce
• Mashed avocado
• Salt & pepper
• Brown bread

Mix all the items, place them on a piece of brown bread, and top it with lettuce and another slice of bread. That hard boiled egg is now more palatable, and there are even more nutrients in this sandwich.

2. Salad

You bowl of salad doesn’t have to be boring and merely composed of green leaves. It can be appetizing and nutritious at the same time. Try one of these three salads as a treat to your taste buds.

Tomato-Peach Salad

Add tomato, red onion slices, and peach slices in a bowl. Dribble some vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Your salad is ready.

Chicken-Mango Salad

Mix the following ingredients in a large bowl to make chicken-mango salad

• Shredded grilled chicken
• Some lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Some grated ginger
• Olive oil
• Diced mango
• Mesclun greens

Yellow Trio

Add yellow grape tomatoes, corn, olive oil, basil, and yellow squash slices in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Popcorn

World’s most famous snack, popcorn, is seen both inside and outside the movie theaters. It specifically became popular during the great depression owing to its low prices. However, the history of popcorn dates back to over 5000 years.

Depending on the way you prepare it, popcorn can either be healthy or unhealthy. As most popcorns available in the market are prepared with unhealthy and high caloric ingredients, it is best to have your air-popped popcorns made at home.

Considering that popcorn is basically a whole grain food, you’d agree that it contains several essential nutrients.

A 100 gram of popcorn has 387 calories and high amounts of vitamins, iron, and fiber. In fact, a 100-gram serving of air-popped popcorn contains 15 grams of fiber, thus making it one of the riches fiber foods.

You also get to have antioxidants from popcorns. What else do you need for a clean eating snack? It’s easy to make, delicious, healthy, and cheap.

4. Strawberries and yogurt

A bowl filled with yogurt and strawberries take almost 1 minute preparation time but can provide significant health benefits along with some great taste.

If you look at the shape of a strawberry, you’d be reminded of the organ heart. This is an indication that strawberries are good for your heart health. They increase good cholesterol in your blood, lower your blood pressure, and even ward off cancer.

Packed with vitamins and antioxidants, strawberries are a fat-free low-calorie food. You get more vitamin C from 8 strawberries as compared to that provided by one orange. There’s no reason left not to buy some strawberries on your way back home.

Yogurt, on the other hand, is an excellent food for bones and digestive tract. It helps prevent osteoporosis and improves multiple digestive issues like lactose intolerance, diarrhea, constipation, H.Pylori infection, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Yogurt is a good source of protein and also contains immune-boosting powers.

Related: 18 Research Proved Foods that Boost Your Immune System

You can also try yogurt and strawberries with a tablespoon of honey.

5. Banana and walnuts

Cut banana into small pieces, put them in a bowl, and add chopped walnuts. Even without the addition of Nutella, this makes a perfect snack to eat on the go.

Let’s see what you get from this combination.

Bananas are an excellent source of fiber, nutrients, and antioxidants.  They feed friendly bacteria in the gut and may even protect against colon cancer and heart diseases.

Bananas have also shown to moderate blood sugar levels after meals.

Walnuts are an energy-dense, high caloric food. By weight, they contain 65 percent fat. Don’t get me wrong. My intentions are not to inject bad cholesterol into your blood.

Unlike other fat-rich foods, walnuts do not increase your risk of obesity as they contain healthy fat. Walnuts also contain minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.

6. Roasted Buffalo Chickpeas

Roasted chickpeas are both crunchy and healthy. These round, cream-colored legumes are favorite all across the globe, especially in the African and Asian countries.

Chickpeas are an excellent source of healthy fat, fiber, carbs, proteins, mineral, and vitamins.

If you are a vegetarian, chickpeas might be even more interesting to you because they are a great substitute for meat.

Just one cup of chickpeas fulfills 50 percent of your daily fiber needs and 26 percent of your daily protein requirements.

7. Cucumber, carrots, and hummus

All you have to do is to place hummus in a small bowl and cut cucumbers and carrots for dipping in it.

Carrots that are claimed to be the perfect health food are nutritious, delicious and crunchy. More importantly, bugs bunny loves them. Vitamin A, carbs, water, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamin K, and several antioxidants make carrots an excellent food to consider.

Carrots help with weight loss, preventing cancer, reducing bad cholesterol, and promoting eye health.

Cucumber that is mostly considered as a vegetable is actually a fruit. It is packed with all the necessary minerals and vitamins. It aids in weight loss and hydration.

Hummus, although a creamy dip, is highly reputed for its health benefits. Folate, vitamins, proteins, minerals, antioxidants, and fibers, you can find all these nutrients in this Middle Eastern food, hummus.

Combining carrots, cucumbers, and hummus as food will be an excellent decision regarding clean eating.

8. Figs and almonds

Put some dried figs and almonds in a bag that is sealable and get going. Tasty, nutritious, and preventing multiple medical conditions, figs are widely popular. They are sweet but low in fat and calories. What great things can we expect other than a delicious food that is healthy?

How are figs healthy? Well, they have good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin B, zinc, copper, potassium, and iron. You simply should not miss out on the figs next time you visit the grocery store.

As for almonds, they have vitamin E, antioxidants, and hunger reducing properties. Owing to their low carbs and high proteins, healthy fat, and fiber, they make a perfect choice for people with diabetes.

Find more about diabetic diet here. 

9. Grapes and cherries

From bakery products to ice cream parlors, cherries are well known as a decorative component. But it’s not just the eye-catching color of cherries that you should add them to your diet; these are also packed with high nutritious contents. Antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber content in cherries bring them to the list of recommended eating list. You just have to pack a few cherries in a box or sealable bag, and the need for munching on unhealthy food is already eliminated.

Want to add more flavor? Consider combining cherries and grapes.

10. Blueberries frozen with yogurt

Low in calories and high in nutrients, blueberries are the most nutritious of all berries.

You want to look younger and prevent disease like cancer, heart problems, and cognitive decline?

Blueberries have all the antioxidants to do the job.

They are also an excellent food for anti-diabetic effects.

11. Dates with almonds

Ever tried placing an almond inside a date?

Not yet? Try it now. Cut a date, remove the seed and replace it with almond. It makes an excellent food choice.

12. Zucchini chips (baked)

Although people in Asian parts of the world prepare a vegetable dish from zucchini, people from other parts may not like that dish.

But you can still reap the benefits and even have it prepared in a way that it’s tasty.

Cut zucchini into small slices. Brush it with olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Dribble with vinegar. Bake it to create crispy and brown chips. You can store it in an airtight container for more prolonged use.

13. Chicken salad stuffed avocados

As the name indicates, it’s a combination of avocado with chicken in place of its seed.

Add celery, pickles, onion, and whole grain mustard in the shredded chicken. Now, fill up the avocado halves with this mixture. Sprinkle pecans as garnish and get to eat this nutritious, clean snack.

14. Honey nut bars

You’d love these nut-bars sweetened with honey. They are super easy to make and contain only clean ingredients; even better, you are likely to have all the required ingredients in your pantry.

Here’s what you need:

• Almonds
• Pecans
• Shelled sunflower seeds
• Walnuts
• Shredded coconut
• Flax seeds (grounded)
• Coconut oil

Break all ingredients with the help of food processor into crumb-sized pieces. Process for up to 2 minutes so that all components start to clump together resulting in a ball-shaped dough.

Create bars from this dough. Cover the bars and chill for 1 to 2 hours.

You can use these for around two weeks provided that the bars are kept in an airtight container.

Although the recipe does not include cashews and hazelnuts, you can definitely add them for some more flavor.

These honey nut bars are loaded with nutrients and make a perfect snack for clean eating.

More Ideas

Don’t find your favorite ingredients in the clean eating snacks mentioned above? No worries. Try some more ideas for preparing clean eating snacks. Here’s another list.

15. Kale chips

16. Fresh fruit popsicle

17. Baked apple chips

18. Lettuce wraps with avocados, chicken, and bell pepper.

19. Raw protein bar

20. Pumpkin seeds

21. Sweet potato chips

22. Roasted pistachios

23. Homemade granola

24. Veggie sandwich

25. Dark chocolate

26. Carrot energy bites

27. Rice cake with almond butter

28. Trail mix

If you’re interested in some healthy food swaps, take a look at these 15 Simple Food Swaps for a Healthy Eating.

Whenever the work snacking comes up, it brings along the imagination of chips, fried items, and processed food. However, these are exactly the things we shouldn’t be snacking on.

Snacking can be taken as an opportunity to nourish our bodies and prevent overeating later in the day. Clean eating helps with better cardiovascular and mental health.

You can weight loss, have more energy, boost your immune system, and protect yourself against diseases with something as simple as clean eating.

Try the above mentioned 28 snacks and see how your energy levels, focus, and mood improves over the time.