What Snacks Are Permissible In The Atkins Diet? Articles | Weight Loss

By: Darren Williger

Everyone likes to have a little snack when not having a meal. In fact, there are people who sustain only on snacks throughout the day. The lifestyle has become such that we cannot avoid snacks. But, most of these snacks tend to be rich in carbohydrates. This is certainly not good for people who are on the Atkins program. It is important to have snacks to keep the blood sugar level optimum, but the snacking rules are different for people who are following the Atkins plan.

If a snack is sweet, it has too many carbohydrates, calories and zero nutritional value. These must be avoided, howsoever much tempting they might seem to be. Estimates by the Snack Food Association suggest that Americans consume 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate per year, and the overall sales of snack foods cumulate to over $30 billion dollars a year.

Carbohydrates are certainly the worst kinds of snacks, but they are also the most popular. Most of these are made from white flour, corn meal and use white sugar and corn syrup. These translate into high trans fats (which lead to atherosclerosis). Certainly, people conscious of their health can do without these snacks.

However, the situation is not so bleak for the Atkins program followers. There are some interesting snacking choices that can be used. The first thing you must do if you are on an Atkins diet is that you must get as much information as possible. You must check out what the ingredients of the snack foods are. If there are artificial flavors and preservatives and trans fats, do not consume them.

Do not stock snacks in your house. Out of sight is out of mind. It is a very unhealthy habit to stock snacks in the house, and that applies to everyone in the house, whether or not they are on the Atkins diet. Get rid of all the snacks in the larder and the refrigerator.

Then, substitute these unhealthy foods with healthier snacks, which are permissible on the Atkins diet. This will also keep you from becoming too hungry and stay on the plan in a healthier way.

Learn how to make some of the low carbohydrate snacks referring to the Atkins recipe books. It is easy to store cheese in various forms, and also pieces of meats. You can learn how to make some Atkins permissible snacks out of these.

Even most soups are allowed on the Atkins program. They are quite nutritious and very easy to make too. They can satisfy you if you want something hot to snack on. Use soy chips and celery if you are on a crunch craving. To add to the protein content of these snacks, you can add cream cheese or peanut butter, and even put in a few nuts.

These snacks work for all the stages of the Atkins diet, including the difficult induction phase. After that, you can incorporate more daring snack choices, like berries with cream and fruits that are acceptable on Dr. Atkins' list.