Healthy snacks & drinks for gaming?

[Philotomy Jurament]

Sliced cucumber with a couple of sprays from one of those 1C per spray salad dressing is one of the better low-calories snacks, for me.

Air-popped popcorn works, too.

 

[Votan]

Bagel chips are preferable from a health food perspective to doritos and potatos chips, though really the whole chip concept is probably bad to begin with. Fortunately, I don't like chips much so they don't tempt me.

One of the gamers back in Seattle liked to bring pretzels, which seemed to be a good choice for snacking. I tended to be the person who brought oreos and potato chips to gaming (despite needing to lose weight).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It really isn't any more messy than dorito powder or salsa.

No joke: recently had a similar discussion about snacks & guitars on the Guitar Player magazine forums...

It seems as if several players have had "OHMYGAWDAREYOUF****ININSANE?!!!" moments when people have reached for their guitars right after handling Cheetoes, Doritos and other messy foodstuffs without cleaning their hands.

 

[Gilladian]

I haven't seen anyone mention two of my favorites:

fruit roll ups (not low sugar, but one roll-up lasts me quite a while) or unsweetened dried fruit has lots of intense flavor.

cocoa nibs (the broken pieces of cocoa beans that become chocolate) are sugar free, very rich in flavor, high fiber and not too high calorie.

I love the little cherry or grape tomatoes and yes! you have to keep your mouth closed!

Hummus with veggies (the dreaded baby carrots are my favorite) is another standby.

For drinks, I like lemonade (reconstituted store lemon juice, but sometime I get a real lemon from the tree my parents have) made with Splenda - yes, artificial sweetener, but it isn't like aspartame, which literally gives me throat spasms.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Even though it is nutritionally complete and healthy, never EVER serve Nutraloaf to your guests.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutraloaf

 

[Kzach]

I don't understand people who don't like fruit, and I would say if it's not very appetizing to you, perhaps you haven't found the fruit or brand that's perfect for you. Try something a little different.

I like fruit well enough but my problem with buying fruit is the quality. I'm yet to find a store that sells consistently good fruit. Nothing worse than buying a bunch of oranges or apples and finding out they're tasteless or watery or bitter; just wasted money on a bunch of fruit I won't eat. Then there's also the wastage factor. Fruit tends to either be ripe or far from it. If it's ripe, you can't buy too much 'cause you won't eat it in time. And if it's unripe, I end up forgetting about it until it's gone off.

If I could find a decent fruit shop that I could hit up every couple of days, I'd be set but despite having literally a dozen fruit shops around me, none provide good tasting fruit with any level of consistency.

Popcorn is surprisingly low-calorie as long as you make it yourself and don't put butter on. Oil popped popcorn is decently healthy, but air popped popcorn is excellent because it cuts out the calories of the oil. You can get an air popper for about $25. Some salt is not going to kill you, especially if you're coming off of sodas.

Air-popped popcorn! Now *that* is the kind of idea I'm after! Something that other people not on a diet could be interested in and that is tasty and appealing. Hmm... now I have to think of flavours... honey?

If you can hold an accurate count of the calories you're consuming, it will help you much more than gauging by your hunger.

I built my diet plan from scratch based on calories, nutrition, simplicity, and a weekly shopping budget. I know pretty much exactly how many calories I'm eating as long as I stick to the plan.

 

[Celebrim]

One of the gamers back in Seattle liked to bring pretzels, which seemed to be a good choice for snacking.

Good point. If you must chip, pretzels are a very good choice. However, personally, I find the traditional hard pretzel only slightly more edible than cardboard and I'm not a big fan of the taste of salt.

However, I have found a pretzel that agrees with my palate and which I'd recommend to non-pretzel lovers because it doesn't taste much like a pretzel and that's Snyder's Multigrain Pretzel Rods.

Back in Alabama, my gaming groups chip of choice was Sun Chips; they're a bit too high calorie for me these days though.

 

[Kzach]

Unsalted almonds are my current snack of choice, gaming or otherwise. More filling than sugary snacks - the protein and fat stays with you in a way that carbs don't - and relatively healthy. A little goes a long way though in terms of calories.

My diet plan already includes raw unsalted almonds as a snack. Three or four small handfuls a day. Great to have next to the computer when you get that peckish feeling between meals. I find a 750g pack lasts me a fortnight so it's great value as well ($11 here).

 

[aurance]

Even though it is nutritionally complete and healthy, never EVER serve Nutraloaf to your guests.

Nutraloaf

Oh I soooooo want to try this!

On topic, try 1"x1" squares of plain lettuce. For the win.

 

[Celebrim]

I like fruit well enough but my problem with buying fruit is the quality. I'm yet to find a store that sells consistently good fruit.

You probably won't. My foodie friends laugh at me when I say that Whole Foods produce is no better than Wal-Marts except in selection, but if you know something about how produce is distributed you'll realize that it can't be anything but that. Produce to all grocery stores is distributed through the same centralized wholesalers. The only difference between the two is the price points they are willing to buy at, and that only matters when the produce is out of season and hense not near its peak anyway.

Even with modern techonology, it's not possible to ship most ripe produce and have it arrive in the grocery store in an edible form. Nor is it possible to provide ripe fruit out of season without greenhouses and the associated expense, and sometimes not even then. Plus, the best produce from the best growing regions is often consumed relatively locally, so if you don't happen to live near a good growing region for X, your tough out of luck. Try getting avacado in central Ohio, for example. You folks near the Mexican border just don't know what you've got. And how do I miss Louisana strawberries and satsumas; and Texas grapefruit; and Arkansas watermelon. And good fresh peaches and pears seem to be impossible to get around here, even from 'pick it yourself' growers. Even the apples are a bit dubious at times.

And I don't know what California produce tastes like in California, but out in the rest of the country its tasteless. What's with those huge hybrid strawberries that have all the flavor of styrofoam? Who thought those were a good idea?

If you have a farmers market or co-op, you might be better off but then you'll basically be tied to only what is grown locally and then have it only for 3-4 weeks a year.

Doritos are like iron rations in that regard. May not taste that great, but a whole lot more dependable when on a campaign.