Here at The Healthy Eating Hub, we are big advocates of snacks. Not for the sake of it, but for providing your body with the nourishment that it needs to survive and thrive that we can’t always fit into mealtimes alone. Snacks can help us get through the morning or afternoon without getting hangry, helping us to focus on our work.
After many years of working with people on their nutrition, we see that snacking is a real challenge area for many people. Common challenges include feeling out of control with snacking or avoiding eating between mealtimes completely. Regardless of the challenge itself, the difficultly largely stems from diet culture telling us that snacking is bad and hunger can be worn as a badge of honour. But diet culture is wrong.
Snacking is an opportunity for nourishment and a key part of honouring hunger, rather than ignoring it.
We know that workdays can get busy and your capacity to consider what you might like to eat in the moment can be limited. So, here’s our solution: keep some non-perishable snacks on hand in your desk drawer. Rather than tell yourself you shouldn’t be snacking, have something nourishing on hand to fuel you when hunger strikes.
You could try:
- Having a box of one thing on hand that you know you like
- Having many options to give yourself variety
- Stocking up with snacks that are eaten on their own
- Including snackable items that you mix and match
What to put in your drawer
Or on your desk or in a locker…
Foods that can safely be kept for extended periods of time outside a fridge or freezer are known as non-perishable foods.
Non-perishable snacks for your desk could include:
- Muesli bars
- Nut bars
- Roasted chickpeas
- Roasted fava beans
- Mixed nuts
- Trail mix
- Popcorn
- Seedy crackers
- Wholegrain crackers
- Peanut butter
- Tinned tuna
- Tinned salmon
- Flavoured tinned legumes
- Dried dates
- Dried apricots
- Fruit in natural juice tubs
Fresh fruit will perish eventually (so can’t be kept in your drawer indefinitely) but there are plenty of options that could stay on your desk for a few days or even the entire week in some cases. Options include whole:
- Bananas
- Mandarins
- Oranges
- Tangelos
- Apples
- Pears
- Nashi pears
- Nectarines
- Peaches
- Passionfruit
- Kiwi fruit
- Mangoes
Note that once a fruit has been cut/peeled it is more suited to being stored in the fridge.
Other tips
Where possible, try to stop what you’re doing in order to have the snack. Turn off your monitor or simply turn away from it if you have limited time for a break. If time allows, however, try moving from your desk to have your snack. This not only helps you to nourish yourself with the food, but also gives your brain the tiniest of breaks, which can help you work more efficiently.
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