Wellness Snacking: 5 hacks

Once upon a time, my perspective on food was very different. I saw food as a pleasure in life, it was all about taste and I used to brag that ‘I could eat anything’. Back then, I was pretty happy eating buckets of KFC, pizza and burgers. These tasty meals were beyond delicious and very affordable.

The fact that I sounded like I always had a cold and had weeping eczema on my hands and face was just part of who I was and, at the time, I didn’t see any connection between what I ate and how I looked, felt and thought.

Everything changed, though, on a single day in 1991, when a friend suggested that my weeping eczema might be due to an intolerance to dairy. It was an interesting idea, so I thought I’d put it to the test. I challenged myself to have no dairy for a whole week.

These challenges always sound like a good idea at the time, but in practice are hard to execute. I hadn’t appreciated quite how much dairy I was consuming, it was everywhere. And I didn’t know what to eat instead. But I gave it a go and just ate what I normally had minus the dairy which in practice meant me crunching my way through dry cereal, drinking bitter black coffee and eating jam, instead of cheese, sandwiches.

By the end pf the challenge, though, a miracle occurred. The eczema went away and has never returned in all of these years. But more to the point, I was woken up to the power of nutrition as a life-force energy.

Wellness Snacking

However, 'knowing and doing' are very different things and it can be very confusing and overwhelming trying to decide what to eat or not, particularly if you're trying to lose weight, improve your energy and vitality. One of my greatest weaknesses has always been snacking. I love to snack. I don’t have a sweet tooth, but when it comes to savoury snacks like chips, well, once I start, it can be hard to stop! 

The good news is that all snacks are not equal and a whole category of wellness snacks have increasingly entered the market over the last few years. To help us navigate the plethora of choices, I sat down with Karla Borland, the CEO and Founder of Morsl, and asked her to share her insights and nuggets of wisdom about the wellness snacking market.

Karla set up Morsl in 2017, bringing the first self-service healthy micro-market to Australia after her frustrations of not being able to access healthy food in her own workplace. As history has taught us, many innovations come out of individual frustrations, and Morsl is a great example of that. As Karla told us:

 'The great thing is that today’s health food industry is full of up and coming suppliers who focus on all-natural, fewer and functional ingredients. We don’t need to snack just to fill our bellies any more. We can happily snack to boost energy levels, increase brain function, improve gut health and even our overall immunity.’

As part of her role at Morsl, Karla gets to thoroughly research and analyse the nutritional content of 100s of food and drink products to make sure that they make the Morsl grade. What a cool job! Based on this great insight, she shared shared some practical examples of snacks that tick both the health and the taste boxes;

• Veggie Crisps

With 93% of Australian adults not having sufficient intake of both fruit and vegetables in their daily diet, an option is to get some of your veggie intake via a snack. Kale chips are a good option with some great brands in the market like DJ&A who’s vacuum cooking process preserves the natural goodness and turns veggies into super crunchy and tasty snacks. If you have the time, you can also make them yourself using a dehydrator, super easy, but mine tend not to be quite as crunchy as DJ&A’s!

• Nuts and seeds

I LOVE nuts and seeds and whilst they can be very high in calories, they are packed with micro and macro nutrients, with research linking nuts to improved memory, mental endurance and greater clarity. I tend to soak some types of nuts like almonds which soften them and helps me to digest them better, but there’s little broader scientific evidence to suggest that soaked nuts are better for you. 

• Dried fruits

Dried fruits make a fantastic snack and they are a great source of fibre and antioxidants. A few years ago, an ex-colleague from Singapore came to visit and brought with her a packet of dried mangoes. After one taste, I was completely hooked and a few minutes later, the empty packet made its way into the bin. Unfortunately, the packet of dried mangoes also contained 20gsm of added sugar. Brands like Sunny Fruit don’t have the added sugar, so this is something to watch out for. Remember, though, that dried fruit does contain a lot of natural sugar on its own, and because of the absence of water, it can be easy to overeat!

• Berries

Snacking on any type of berry: blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries is a great way to upgrade your nutrients and add high amounts of antioxidants, nutrients that bolster the immune system and protect the body against free radicals that can lead to disease.

• Chocolate

Chocolate in it’s raw, natural form is packed full of nutrients to fuel your body for greatness. Unfortunately, much of the chocolate we eat today is loaded with fat and sugar which removes the tremendous nutritional benefits we could get. As with everything, all chocolate is not equal.

So there you have it. Five opportunities to upgrade your own snacking habits. Thanks very much, Karla, for sharing your insights. There’s so much in the world you can’t control, but one thing you can control is what you decide to put into your body every single day. If you choose to upgrade that decision consistently, you'll be surprised what happens. Tiny changes will have a big impact over time.

Read more from Karla Borland, plus many other great tips and insights to help you move towards a state of Wellbeing or EQUILIBRIUM. Download it for free.