In my five (nearly six) years of living this alkaline lifestyle – including transitions, crashes, perfection, transitions, crashes, perfection and then the happy place I’m in now – I truly believe that one of the key ways to guarantee long-term healthy living is this:

Master the snack.

In my experience I find that most people slack off when they’re hungry. When you’re hungry and there is nothing easy, quick and healthy to grab, you’re most likely to be naughty. And then it snowballs.

The Snowball of Doom

It is like a vicious cycle. You get really hungry, there is nothing easy, instant, healthy and tasty to grab, so you eat something naughty. Maybe a biscuit from the office kitchen, or maybe it’s a little chocolate to tide you over, or maybe it’s one of the kids treats. Your hunger is satiated but then the ‘oh well’ thoughts kick in.

…oh well, I’ve been bad today, so I might as well have takeaway for dinner and start again tomorrow. And a glass or two of wine. And desert. Oh, but then I’ve got dinner out tomorrow night and then it’s the weekend, so I might as well start on Monday. But on Monday I’ll be REALLY good.

You know what I’m talking about. The hardest thing for most people when they are trying to live a healthy lifestyle is snacking. Those huger-attacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon when you just need something. Those times when it is just so tempting to be a little bit naughty – because there simply aren’t any tasty healthy snacks!

This might seem a little dramatic, but it is true! Get your snacks sorted and you are SO much more likely to be able to keep yourself in the happy healthy place and stay healthy and alkaline for the long-term.

The 10 Best Alkalising, Healthy Snacks

Imagine how much easier it would be to stay healthy if you knew of a whole heap of healthy, tasty snacks.

Imagine the next time you’re feeling that 11am or 3pm hunger and you had something energising and healthy to eat, instead of either going without or turning to the biscuit jar (my old vice).

I’m about to make healthy living a whole lot easier. I’m about to give you a long list of snacks that are:

• Healthy
• Tasty
• Satisfying
• Quick & Easy

Healthy, Alkaline Snacks – The Ultimate Guide!

Dehydrated/Dried Foods

One of the best investments you could ever make would be a dehydrator. They are simply incredible and have transformed my life.

What is a dehydrator?

A dehydrator is a small electrical appliance for drying foods. A food dehydrator has an electric element for heat and a fan and vents for air circulation. Dehydrators are efficiently designed to dry foods fast at 140ºF.

The process of dehydrating slowly removes all of the moisture from fresh vegetables to make healthy, cheap, raw and long-lasting snacks and treats.

The dehydration process retains almost 100% of the nutritional content of the food, retains the alkalinity of fresh produce and actually inhibits the growth of microforms such as bacteria.

Fresh foods can sometimes contain simple yeasts, mold and bacteria; however, by inhibiting the water content their growth is considerably reduced.

Let me make this real for you: with a dehydrator you can dehydrate almost any vegetable to create healthy crisps/chips/snacks from sweet potato, parsnip, pumpkin, courgette (zucchini), beetroot, tomato, okra, nuts, seeds etc.

You get bite sized, highly nutritious snacks that can be carried around with you, are delicious and are always readily available.

I love to have a bag of dehydrated vegetable chips, sprinkled with a little Himalayan salt.

Just to reiterate, this thing has made staying alkaline and healthy SO much easier!

I personally recommend the Excalibur range. These are widely recognised as being the best on the market – click here for more on the Excalibur dehydrators.

Jason Vale’s Juice-in-a-Bar

This has been the best invention since the wheel. Jason Vale has managed what seemed to be the impossible by making a snack bar that actually is healthy. Others have tried and failed (quite dismally) but Jason has cracked it.

These snack bars are delicious. They’re made from the juice of vegetables, grasses and low sugar fruits to form a decadent, healthy snack bar.

The ingredients are:

Raw dates, raw almond butter, barley grass, wheatgrass, nettle leaf, shavegrass, alfalfa juice, dandelion juice, kamut grass juice, barley grass juice, oat grass juice, burdock root, broccoli juice, kale juice, spinach juice, parsley juice, carob pod, ginger root, nopal cactus, amla berry, spirulina, chlorella, kelp, Nova Scotia dulse, amylase, lipase, protease, cellulase, bromelain & papain.

Reads like the side of a tub of green drink!

These are filling, nutritious and again, a healthy, readily available snack! Click here for more info.

Seeds & Nuts

What could be easier and better than a big bag o’ nuts and seeds?! I am always snacking on a nut and seed mix. I have a bag with me wherever I am. In the office, in my bag, in the car, on the run, after the gym, before I go out. Whenever I am hungry I always know I can rely on nuts and seeds. They are a staple of a healthy diet.

Rich in proteins, essential fatty acids and more – you should aim to have a good supply of: almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, walnuts etc. on hand at all times!

Veggie Sticks

A great one for at home, and always gives you a decent boost for an hour or two between meals. I love to have big chunks (or sticks) of pepper (capsicum), carrot, cucumber, celery, tomatoes and when you’re a bit more adventurous and have some nice dips – broccoli and cauliflower.

You’ll probably have most of these on hand anyway for other recipes and meals – so just don’t forget they’re there and use them up!

Most of us throw away a shocking amount of food each week – don’t let that happen, snack on it instead!

Smoothies

Alkaline, chunky smoothies are one of my favourites. Less than five minutes to prepare and I’ve got a good pint (or more) of thick, healthy smoothie that easily keeps me going for a couple of hours.

I’d also wager that these smoothies contain your 5-a-day veg in each glass too – so you know you’re getting past that minimum amount in one delicious serve.

Try these:

Sweet & Chunky Alkaline Shake
Alkaline Avocado Power Shake
pH Boosting Protein Shake

Soups

Similarly, alkaline raw (or warmed) soups take less than five minutes to prepare and are like a full meal in minutes. Packed with goodness, they’ll keep you going and give you a big nutrient hit.

Try these on for size. The tomato & pepper one, in particular can be made in under 60 seconds.

Tomato & Sweet Red Pepper Soup
Cucumber & Watercress Soup
Tuscan Bean Soup
Spicy Alkaline Summer Soup

Juices

I love to have at least one fresh, raw, green veggie juice per day. Not only does it make a great snack (or meal – keeps me going from breakfast til lunch some days) but it is literally bursting with goodness. Can you imagine eating a salad of: a cucumber, a carrot, two handfuls of spinach, a tomato, a heap of lettuce, 2 sticks of celery and a heap of kale in 30 seconds?

Juices give you such a nutritional hit that your body keeps you going for hours and hours on them.

Try these:

Energise Green Drink
Blood Building Vegetable Juice
Anti Cancer Juice

Avocado on Toast

This is a great one and features heavily on the Alkaline Diet Course. When transitioning you can use rye or as healthy a bread as you can find, but to be nice and alkaline I recommend sprouted breads. These are available from Holland & Barrett and Gillian McKeith’s You Are What You Eat brand does some lovely ones. These are available in pretty much all supermarkets including Morrisons & Waitrose.

Simply toast the bread, chop on some avocado, sliced tomato, drizzle with olive or flax oil and top with Himalayan salt and black pepper. Lovely.

Dips

I really recommend getting into dip making because you can jazz up pretty much anything and make almost anything a snack! Home made hummous & tahini are my favourites and I enjoy them with salads, veggie sticks and on top of sprouted bread.

Makes any snack more alkaline and more tasty!

Here is my fave hummous recipe.

Fruit (sparing & transitional)

Fruit is a funny one. On one hand fruit is nutritious, easy and tasty. But on the other hand, practically all fruit is packed with sugar. I won’t get into the fructose/fruit debate again here – read more about why I think it is important that you don’t eat fruit here (or at least too much of it).

BUT the bottom line is that it is easy, accessible, tasty and does contain a lot of good nutrients. So I advise that you treat fruit as a ‘next best option’, a healthy alternative, a treat and a backup.

Even Dr Young of The pH Miracle fame will eat a banana (25% sugar!) as a treat or backup – so don’t ban it from your life forever – just treat it right.

If you are going to go for fruit I recommend grapefruit, watermelon, berries and cherries as the lower-sugar-content fruits.

Try to stay away from bananas and pineapples. They’re sweet as’.

And that is it!

If you stick with these snacks and make sure you’ve always got one or more available at any given time I can guarantee you’ll find it easier to stay healthy, alkaline and on track to reach your health goals – whatever they might be!

Stay healthy and happy
Ross
(http://www.energiseforlife.com)