Standard snack fare is often off the GL scale. Impulse eats such as sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits or muffins and soft drinks are designed to give you an instant energy buzz from all that sugar or caffeine, but you soon come crashing down into an energy slump. The following snacks have been chosen specifically for their protein and carbohydrate balance and their low GL (of 5N. Choose two for each day, to make up your 10 GL snack allowance. The snacks are important, as they help to keep blood sugar levels even between meals and stop you from reaching for less healthy alternatives.
Low-GL snack tips
You can eat a small apple or pear or a punnet of berries for 5GL whereas bananas and dried fruit have a much higher GL.
Remember: rye bread has a much lower GL than standard wheat bread, so you can eat a whole slice of pumpernickel or sourdough rye bread for 5GLbut only half a slice of normal bread.
Oatcakes are another low-GL snack - you can have 3 for 5GL.
Protein foods such as peanut butter and hummus, or nuts, contain negligible.
- 2 rough oatcakes spread with hummus
- 2 rough oatcakes spread with cottage cheese
- 2 rough oatcakes spread with reduced fat cream cheese
- 2 rough oatcakes spread with nut butter
- 2 rough oatcakes spread with tuna and guacamole or salsa (optional: top with cucumber slices or cress/alfalfa sprouts)
- 2 rough oatcakes spread with tuna mayo (optional: top with cucumber slices or cress/alfalfa sprouts)
- 1 slice pumpernickel-style rye bread with nut butter (optional: top with cucumber slices or cress/alfalfa sprouts)
- 1 slice pumpernickel-style rye bread with hummus
- (optional: top with cucumber slices or cress/alfalfa sprouts)
- 1 slice pumpernickel-style rye bread with cottage cheese and cucumber slices
- l Crudites (such as pepper, cucumber, celery, cabbage or carrot sticks, sugarsnap peas, mangetouts, baby corn, radishes, spring onions) with 150g (51/2oz) hummus (about 2/3 small pot)
- l Crudités (such as pepper, cucumber, celery, cabbage or carrot sticks, sugarsnap peas, mangetouts, baby corn, radishes, spring onions) with 120g (41/4oz) cottage cheese (about 2/3 small pot) Crudites (such as pepper, cucumber, celery, cabbage or carrot sticks, sugarsnap peas, mangetouts, baby corn, radishes, spring onions) with 150g (51/2oz) guacamole (about 2/3 small pot)
- Fruit and yogurt smoothie, such as 150g (5 1/2oz) organic live natural yogurt blended with berries, or a shop-bought one with natural yogurt and no added sugar
- l Live natural yogurt or cottage cheese with 5l of berries or chopped fruit
- Piece of fruit (equivalent to 5,& with 2 teaspoons nuts or seeds
- Miso soup (one serving, from a packet; simply mix powder with boiling water) plus a piece of fruit afterwards (equivalent to 5GL) .4 Boiled egg with 2 rough oatcakes
- Omelette (cooked as for Omelette in Pitta Bread. Roll out of pan and onto the bread) with a piece of toasted pumpernickel-style rye bread
- Handful of olives plus a piece of fruit (equivalent to 5p)
