The snack consumption has shot up in the past ten years. It is as if people cannot do without the inevitable snack anymore. Nowadays, snack foods have turned into a large market and so the health factor has been neglected for a major part. This is one of the main reasons behind the ever rising obesity epidemic.
Junk Food
Children are mostly affected by the poor nutrition food stuffs. Obesity has been growing among children at an alarming rate. The junk snacks are high in energy and very low in nutritional value. Junk food includes candies, chips, crackers and cookies. Such food items provide only suboptimal nutrition. It includes fat, sodium and sugar. Junk snack foods are categorized into LNHE foods based on its nutrient content.
Excel Snack foods
There are some excellent choices for snack foods that have a high rate of nutrition content and are low in brief energy. It is categorized as HNLE due its high concentration of nutrient value. Such foods include vegetables like carrot, radish, and tomato, dairy foods that are low in fat content. It may not be tasty but will serve your body better. It is natural and does not have any side effects. The definition of such snack food is very often debated but still remains a big hit.
Nutrient content Â
The calculated nutrient content of the HNLE food is more that 20 kilo calories of oz and has 100 kilo calorie per serving. Vegetables and fresh fruits have a high content of fiber, photo nutrients and also potassium. The low fat milk products are high on elements like calcium, protein and also potassium. The analyzed record of the calorie per ounce for vegetables is 7 kilo calories. 10 vegetables were analyzed and all produced the same result. The serving sizes of the foods vary but each one has 4oz that has an average of 1.7 grams of protein and 2.6 gram of fiber. The HNLE food items meet almost all the guidelines of the nutrition quotient with 87%.
LNHE food is in a flux state based on the analysis. It contains highlights of seven different categories of food items. All the results showed that the junk snack food is very high in sugar content and has very little nutrient content. Almost 25% of energy is derived from added sugars. Only a few kinds of such food stuffs meet the guidelines of nutrient content.
The consumers should be aware of all the guidelines while choosing a snack food. Always check the food labels before purchasing any food item. The label will identify an excellent snack food from the junk foods. The advertisements of these junk foods are mainly aimed at the children. This influences the children and they force their parents to buy the item at any cost. To avoid this, the attention of the kids should be changed from the television set to some other recreational activity. Good and healthy snacks should be provided in school cafeterias and stores. Good and healthy snack foods should be promoted for better health and living.