33 Best Healthy Snacks To Buy For Health And Weight Loss

Too much snacking can quickly ruin an otherwise very healthy diet, but only if you choose the wrong ones that can be truly unhealthy indeed.

Hence, here’s a list of super healthy yet delicious snacks that don’t need a recipe, and that you can start incorporating into your healthy diet right now (as well as where to get them) in order to help move your health in the right direction and towards a healthier life and lifestyle!

“Choose the right snacks to stay healthy.”

But first, just briefly, I wanna touch on the topic of whether snacking in general is a good or bad habit to have, what exactly snacking entails, why we do it and what factors that decide whether a snack can be considered healthy or not…

So:

What Is Snacking And Why Do We Do It?
And, Is Snacking Good Or Bad For Us?
What Makes A Good And Healthy Snack?
33 Best Healthy Snacks To Buy For Overall Health And Weight Loss (Try Keeping These At Home No Matter What!)
- Best Healthy Protein Rich Snacks To Buy (And Where To Get Them):
- Best Vegan Friendly Snacks (And Where To Purchase Them From):
Quick Summary:
Related Reading:
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What Is Snacking And Why Do We Do It?

Well, in simple terms, snacking entails eating smaller amounts of food in between our main meals.

And why do we do it?

Well, oftentimes because:

We’re a little hungry and it can help curb our appetite.
It provides a little energy if several hours pass between our meals and our blood sugar drops.
Because we’re sad, bored, stressed or depressed – A snack can provide a mood boost and a distraction.
To stave off cravings, whether addictive ones or not.

“The reasons for why we snack are several.”

And, Is Snacking Good Or Bad For Us?

In general, I’d say it’s better to avoid snacking than to snack (if you can, that is), but as long as you stick to very healthy snacks, such as the ones listed below, and still stick to a decent (12 hours plus) intermittent fasting window (don’t snack at night, basically), you’re still perfectly good to go and it shouldn’t retract much, if anything at all, from a perfectly healthy diet.

It might add, rather, since it can help prevent overeating at mealtimes while also providing plenty additional opportunity to increase your nutrition intake (again, granted you choose healthy snack alternatives such as the ones below).

“Although no snacking may be better, when you choose healthy snacks you’re still good to go!”

What Makes A Good And Healthy Snack?

When it comes to determining whether a certain food or dish makes for a good (and healthy) snack, there are a few things that I like to focus on that can help you too when deciding what to snack on, and they are:

Is it whole food based (as opposed to processed)? – Whole foods, and thus also snacks, are the bread and butter of a healthy diet and thus what you want to be aiming for when it comes to healthy snacking. Healthy snacking is king. Do note however that they can be processed or not whole foods as well as long as their ingredients pass the health test.
Is it free from seed and vegetable oils? – As touched on in my articles on a healthy diet, avoiding seed and vegetable oil, detox, staying disease free and on optimizing your health, this is a BIG deal. Perhaps the biggest.

So do get yourself educated on the many harms of these seed oils (list) and the foods they’re in to be able to avoid them, and live to see many a more bright days for it.

Is it low in sugar (especially added sugar)? – This one should come as no surprise to you since avoiding sugar is all the rage nowadays. It’s addictive, unhealthy, and thus it’s a no-brainer!
Is it convenient? – To me a good snack needs to be convenient, as in easy to grab without much hassle, time commitment or inconvenience. Now whether that means buying snacks that are ready to eat, or preparing them in advance if you’re following recipes or using leftovers, both methods work very well. And of course, if you do have the time and inclination for it, there’s nothing wrong with following a recipe and cooking or baking some healthy snack for instant consumption just as long as you don’t mind the extra inconvenience.
Is it tasty? – Although not a prerequisite for a good and healthy snack, a good taste certainly doesn’t hurt, and might help making not reaching for that bag of chips or candy bar that much easier. Thus, another no-brainer.
Does it curb hunger and/or satisfy your cravings? – If it doesn’t, what’s the point, right? You’ll just end up reaching for another, possibly less healthy snack variant that does.

“Watch out for added sugar and seed/vegetable oils and keep taste and convenience in mind when choosing healthy snacks.”

So, with that said, let’s move on to the list, shall we?

33 Best Healthy Snacks To Buy For Overall Health And Weight Loss (Try Keeping These At Home No Matter What!)

And for simplicity’s sake, let’s start with the snacks highest in protein:

Best Healthy Protein Rich Snacks To Buy (And Where To Get Them):

And among those we have:

1. Yogurt, Kefir And Milk (Full Fat Ideally)

Dairy products in their natural and unsweetened state can be great snacks, and with yogurt and kefir you also get a lot of healthy probiotic bacteria, something most of us could do well with some more of today!

Feel free to add some fruit/berries or some healthy whole grain muesli such as this one (with a rating of 4.8 out of 5) if you feel like it and it could even do well as a meal substitute or breakfast! Choose plain or natural yogurt since the flavored ones are generally filled with added sugar and no longer as healthy.

2. Beef Jerky And Dried (Or Canned) Meat

A great healthy and protein rich snack that is both very tasty and super-convenient, dried or canned meat is hard to beat. You can get some really good grass-fed dried meat sticks from here, online.

“Dried meat, is pretty neat.”

If you go for canned meat, just remember that you do not want anything that’s packed in unhealthy seed or vegetable oils, and the same goes for canned seafood, where you’ll generally want to go for something like water, tomato sauce or olive oil:

3. Dried Or Canned Seafood

Whether canned mackerel, tuna, salmon, sardines, clams, mussels or oysters (great for boosting testosterone) are your thing (click the links for where to get them!), they’re all incredibly healthy, with oysters likely coming out on top with their very high amounts of zinc, selenium, B12, copper and iron. Eat the fattier options, including salmon, mackerel and sardines at least two to three times a week and you’ll no longer need to supplement with omega 3, just make sure you choose the ones canned in water, tomato sauce or olive oil and you should be all good!

Whole fish and those with the bones still left in them, as opposed to filets, are healthier since they leave in the calcium rich bones and all the healthy organs, but filets are still very healthy as well, so go with the ones you know you’ll actually eat!

And for dried seafood, try this dried shrimp.

Best Canned Clams You “Can” Buy Online (And Healthiest)

Best Canned Oysters (Smoked And Not) And How To Eat Them

4. Boiled Egg/s

A superfood in its own right, one or a couple of boiled eggs make for a perfect satiating snack, and besides, they’re usually pretty cheap. Quick and easy to prepare and you can keep them in the fridge for a couple of days for max convenience.

This powdered whole eggs powder can save you some time and is great too, with whole eggs as the only ingredient.

“No need to beg, just have an egg.”

5. Protein Shakes/Powders

A very convenient snack option that both provides plenty of protein and can be very satiating (and tasty!). I wouldn’t say that it’s healthier or as healthy as eating real meat or eggs/dairy products, but it still definitely earns a place on this list.

These whey protein shakes/powders from All Star Health are top notch, come in many flavors and are very affordable, both healthy and tasty, so try them out if you don’t already have one at home.

6. Cottage Cheese

For the dairy protein lovers out there, need I say more :)?

“Some cottage cheese will go down with ease.”

7. Pork Rinds

A superb whole food way of getting extra collagen protein into your diet, and in my opinion very tasty as well. Eat them fairly often and you’ll no longer need to supplement with collagen type 1.

You can get yours here from Amazon, tasty and affordable!

8. Leftovers

Your hopefully more or less protein rich meal from yesterday makes for a great snack, whether you opt for the entire meal or just the meat. If it was a healthy meal, it’ll make for a healthy snack :).

9. Precooked Sausages (Boiled And/Or Smoked)

Precooked sausages, be they plain, chorizo, bratwurst or you name it, make for a great and healthy protein rich snack that you can enjoy either cold directly or microwaved (or fried/grilled of course, although slightly less convenient).

Get them from your local supermarket or again try these very nice grass-fed dried meat sticks (many different kinds of meat and flavors), that are much like sausages :).

“Precooked sausages are convenient, and there are those delicious grass-fed meat sticks again :).”

10. Healthy Precooked Prepared Meals

A highly underutilized option both as a meal and as a snack alternative, the options are plenty today when it comes to healthy and incredibly tasty precooked meals.

“A precooked/prepared healthy meal can be a big deal.”

11. Protein Bar/s

A ready-made protein rich snack variant that is indeed very convenient, and can be made from either animal- or plant protein (unless you’re vegan or vegetarian I recommend animal protein though).

The problems with most protein bars on the market however are the same as with processed foods, in that they often contain both seed and vegetable oils and a lot of added sugars, so I really did have to look long and hard to find one that I like and that fits the health bill of a healthy snack..

These protein bars from All Star Health fit that bill however and contain neither of those ingredients, using some sweeteners instead which I’d argue are still in reasonable amounts generally better than sugar, so these come highly recommended to try out!

12. Nuts And Seeds Or Trail Mix

Although not as protein rich as most animal based snacks, nor with an as complete a protein profile from an amino acid type standpoint, nuts and seeds or trail mix still make a great and protein rich enough treat that’s also considered very healthy. And the options are so many! Go with brazil nuts to get your daily dose of selenium (less of a concern if you’re already taking a good multi), or macadamia nuts/flaxseeds/chia seeds to avoid excessive omega 6 while increasing your alpha-linolenic omega-3 intake (all of the above are considered true superfoods in my book). Other popular options include pumpkin seeds that are reasonably high in zinc (although there are better zinc supplements), sunflower seeds and almonds that are high in vitamin E, walnuts for some extra omega-3 (still also fairly high in omega-6 though), cashews, or peanuts (technically legumes, a good peanut butter can work too) for a more wallet-friendly option. They’re all very rich in copper as well (again, not any issue if you’ve already invested in a good multivitamin).

“Nothing seedy about seeds.”

Keep it around 1-2 handfuls per day, or not more than 3, especially if you’ve yet to drastically reduce your omega-6 oil consumption, for maximum health benefit, since it adds up, meaning even whole foods such as some nuts and seeds can meaningfully contribute to a too high omega-6 intake when added on top of an already high vegetable-/seed oil intake.

Click the links of the individual nuts or seeds above to order high quality nuts and seeds from Allstarhealth.com, they’ve got great prices and a quick delivery (they also ship abroad).

You still need to watch out for added vegetable oils and read the labels when buying nuts and seed, but the above ones are all cleared.

Get nuts!

“Get nuts :).”

13. Canned Beans Or Legumes

Another protein rich and vegan friendly snack that makes for a healthy and convenient treat, canned beans and legumes are readily available in most supermarkets and online. Go for a low sodium or sea salt version such as these highly popular best sellers for some additional health benefits.

Or try these dried mung beans, which are even more convenient than canned ones, imo.

And now, let’s move on to the less protein-based yet equally as healthy and weight loss friendly snacks on this list:

Best Vegan Friendly Snacks (And Where To Purchase Them From):

Take note that the two above snacks on this list, nuts and seeds/trail mix and canned legumes, that are rich in protein, also belong among these vegan friendly snacks!

And with that said, let’s start with:

14. Fresh Fruit And Vegetables Or Berries

As “whole” as it gets, fresh fruits and vegetables or berries are hard to beat when it comes to snacking, adding welcome vitamins and minerals to your diet. As mentioned in my healthy diet article it’s thus highly recommended to always keep some at home and handy!

-> Fresh fruit on Amazon.

15. Vegetable/Seed Oil-free Potato, Sweet Potato Or Tortilla Chips

Sadly, regular potato chips (or tortilla/sweet potato chips) are often among the worst things you can eat (or snack on)…

That has nothing to do with the potato or corn though (potatoes are actually a superfood!), and everything to do with the highly processed and omega-6 rich vegetable oil that they’re often drenched, and even worse, fried, in.

(See this article for why these are so bad, and even worse when fried or heated).

But if you can get the chips that are not made with these oils, such as these potato chips using avocado oil and sea salt, these sweet potato chips using coconut oil and sea salt or these tortilla chips made with grass-fed tallow and sea salt, you’ve hit the jackpot! Very healthy and just as if not even more tasty, and if they’re using sea salt as opposed to regular salt like these ones do that’s a bonus point healthwise as well.

Do enjoy them with a healthy dip sauce if that’ll make them even more delicious in your eyes (and mouth), because there are very healthy alternatives for those too, which you will notice further down on this list!

“Using a healthy dip with your healthy chip is kinda hip.”

16. Granola Or Energy Bar

A great and very healthy and convenient snack choice, granted it is free from unhealthy oils and added sugars.

This is again, as with the protein bars above, a big issue due to most of the granola and energy bars on the market being filled with sugar and often seed oils as well.

But I recommend this plant-based protein bar that fit well with above requirements.

17. Microwaved Oat Porridge Or Overnight Oats

As a convenient to prepare whole grain, lightly prepared oats is a decent snack option, fairly satiating as well.

Buy them at your local supermarket or get them delivered to your doorstep from the link above!

“Oat is the GOAT.”

18. Dried Fruit

These include raisins, dates, figs, dried apricots, prunes and more (try this popular dried mango snack, many of these have added sugar but this one doesn’t!). While not nearly as healthy as fresh fruits overall, and similar to fruit juices (which aren’t that great for health) in that they’re a very concentrated form of natural sugar that makes sugar overconsumption a bit too easy, they still deserve a spot as a great snack as long as you limit your consumption a bit and don’t overeat on it.

Click the hyperlinked dried fruits above to find the most popular and top-quality brands selling these on Amazon.

19. Shredded Coconut Or Coconut Chips

Another superfood in my book, taking the health benefits of coconut oil to the next and even less processed level! The coconut chips are tastier than the shredded coconut (imo) but also generally more expensive, although the linked ones are actually really affordable as well.

20. Tea Or Coffee

For those of you too lazy to brew your own coffee (I’m guilty here), I highly recommend a quality instant coffee which can be even healthier than regular coffee since you’re also ingesting all of the antioxidant rich powder that makes up the whole bean.

Clumped together because they’re both very healthy and superfoods in their own right. Drink as much tea as you like (both green and black is fine, here’s a good green tea), and up to 4-5 cups of coffee a day, for max health benefits, just don’t drink it too close to bedtime or it might keep you up at night and affect your sleep (not good!).

If you want to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea later in the evening, go ahead and make it decaf/caffeine free to circumvent the sleep issues. Here’s a good decaf coffee, decaf instant coffee and a good herbal tea option (herbal teas are generally caffeine-free).

Bonus: If you’re into detox, you can get this detox tea for overall detox (and weight loss), or this one for liver detox, an area that has risen in popularity as of recent years. They both come highly recommended.

“Have some tea, it’s not just for me.”

21. Boiled Or Microwave Baked Potato Or Sweet Potato

As the name entails, boiled potatoes or sweet potatoes make for a perfect healthy whole food snack (keep some in the fridge and your snack couldn’t be more convenient), but not everyone knows you can actually microwave bake a potato or sweet potato from scratch (as in, raw) in a fairly timely fashion if you don’t have any pre-cooked ones in store.

Make sure you pick a fairly small to medium-sized potato though, so it’ll get evenly cooked (here’s a good recipe)!

Feel free to enjoy with some butter or a healthy dip sauce (see bottom of list) if you want to stray away from the vegan-ness, or just choose a vegan friendly dip among them.

-> Fresh potatoes on Amazon.

22. Popcorn

Popcorn is a great snack, even microwaved ones, as long as you, just as with potato and tortilla chips can find a seed oil free variant, here’s one that I can recommend and that uses palm oil. The alternative is to use an air fryer (very quick, healthy and convenient and best in the long run if you plan on eating a lot of popcorn) or to pop them the old fashioned way on the stove (avoiding any problematic vegetable oils, of course). In these cases you’d use the corn kernels directly.

“Eating popcorn never gets worn.”

Same here, feel free to put some real melted butter on top.

23. Gum

Gums can be a good way to ease your cravings and distract yourself from food for a while, and generally a completely calorie-free option as well (just make sure to choose sugar-free). Besides, chewing more in general is good for you (processed food makes us chew less)!

Although I think most sugar free gums are fine, some are still healthier than others, but these ones are alright.

Or you can go the completely natural route and use mastic gum, which gives you some additional chewing resistance (jaw workout, anyone?) while having both anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and much more.

“Some gum is better than rum.”

24. Kale And Seaweed Chips Or Dried Seaweed (Only If Seed Oil-free)

Another great chips alternative, but the same rules apply, i.e., you need to find seed-oil free products, fairly hard to find but they include these oil-free kale chips, these seaweed chips with avocado oil (they have it in olive olive as well) or this dried seaweed.

Kale packs a lot of vitamin K (K1), as does seaweed which is also a great iodine source (eat a lot of seaweed and you won’t need to supplement iodine or kelp!).

These are also another type of snack that goes great with one of the healthy dips further down on the list.

25. Whole Grain Rice Cakes, Corn Cakes Or A Sandwich

Convenient enough to either snack on directly or to make a sandwich out of, brown rice rice cakes, corn cakes or whole grain bread (whole grain crispbreads like this one are often free from veg oils and added sugars that plague most normal breads) are great snack choices! Their processed counterparts though (white rice rice cakes and white bread), not so much

So, keep it whole grain and feel free to enjoy it with some real butter (not vegetable oil based margarine) and cheese or ham (not vegan) or some peanut butter (high in omega-6 though so don’t go overboard on this if you’re using it as a staple food). A good dip sauce can be a good fit as well (see bottom of list).

“This train, runs on whole grain.”

**26. Canned Or Dried Olives (Fresh Are Great Too But May Be Less Convenient)**

As with shredded coconut and coconut oil, canned olives (and dried olives)are the even healthier and less processed form of olive oil, meaning they’re full of healthy fats, but also fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants hence making them a good and convenient healthy snack.

27. Dark Chocolate Or Cacao Nibs

This antioxidant-packed beast of a treat luckily also makes the cut as one of the healthiest snacks, just make sure it’s of as dark a variant as you can find, since the non-cacao part of chocolates are usually made up of added sugars.

85% or darker is my recommendation in order to be considered very healthy (I usually go with 90%, personally). It can be a bit of an acquired taste if you’re not used to it, or if your taste buds are too used to overstimulating processed food (which can be highly addictive).

Hot chocolate made straight from cacao powder with minimal or no added sugar (use a natural sweetener such as stevia instead if you need one) can also be considered dark chocolate and has similar health benefits, these dark chocolate bars from ASH brand are a great option, (and come in different flavors), so try them out!

“Very dark and might leave a mark.”

28. Green Smoothie Or Greens/Berry Powder

Make it yourself in a mixer while focusing on veggies or berries over fruit, or buy a good greens powder or berry powder to make it more convenient. If you’re already taking a good whole food multivitamin you’re at least already getting the benefits of some daily greens powder (albeit generally not that much), but an additional dose certainly can’t hurt!

This greens powder is very good and affordable (most equally good greens powders are double or several times the cost!) or this dried berry powder (a bit tastier yet still really healthy).

29. Pre-made Vegan Meals

As touched upon above but with animal protein in it, pre-cooked meals or salads are just a really convenient way to make sure you eat healthy.

Whatever extra expense of these pre-cooked meals, they more than make up for in convenience and time saved for most, since if they can help you stick to your healthy diet better, that’s a well worthy investment in your health already!

If you’re on a stricter budget however, struggling to make ends meet, you may want to consider cooking your own healthy meals rather and sticking to other more affordable healthy snacks on this list (thumbs up emoji).

“A prepared meal is very real.”

30. Light Energy Drinks Or Soda

Although not super-healthy or particularly “whole” per se, they’re not necessarily super unhealthy either, which makes them a decent snack alternative if you really miss that soda or just enjoy that feeling you get from energy drinks.

Energy drinks can also be a good source of caffeine and B-vitamins (not an issue if you’re already supplementing with a good multi), and I personally enjoy them from time to time.

Just make sure that they’re the light version and sugar free, as opposed to packed with sugar which is the norm, or they can no longer be considered a somewhat healthy and acceptable healthy snack.

My personal favorite at the time is Celcius, which you can order from here and which comes in a lot of tasty flavor (always sugar-free) and with a good combination of B-vitamins and caffeine (200 mg per can, so keep it at max 2 a day).

31. Whole Grain Crackers

Back on the whole grain train again and for those of you that love to take a crack at a good cracker or two, whole grain crackers are a good option and can be enjoyed with some real butter, cheese or a healthy dip.

Just make sure they don’t have any added vegetable oil, since many of them do making them unhealthy for you rather.

“Whole grain is still the train.”

32. Healthy Dip Sauce

A healthy dip sauce can easily improve the deliciousness of other dippable snacks by orders of magnitude (vegetables, potato/tortilla/sweet potato/kale chips, boiled or microwaved potato or sweet potato, meat varieties, rice/corn cakes and so on), while even being super healthy in its own right.

Nice!

The trick is to stay away from most commercial and ready-made dip sauces that are made with vegetable oil and super unhealthy (start reading the labels!) and instead only buy or make ones without these oils (and without added sugar, which can be a thing too).

Base your dips, dressings and spreads on good fats such as olive oil, sour cream or creme fraiche instead to make them both more healthy and more tasty (great!).

Here are some powdered or ready-made ones for maximum convenience that fit the bill (click the links to view them on All Star Health or Amazon!):

Unsweetened ketchup (With added sugar it’s not nearly as healthy)
Marshmallow Dessert dip
Soy sauce
Street taco sauce
Powdered dip mix (just mix these with some healthy creme fraiche or sour cream and you’re good to go)

33. Water

I thought we’d end this list on a very wet and natural note, because not everyone knows that actually just drinking some water may curb your hunger and appetite, as well as help keep you hydrated, which makes it a good snack or perhaps a snack substitute.

Whatever you wanna call it, try drinking some water next time you’re in the mood for a snack (especially if it’s an unhealthy one), and see if it does the trick or at least helps.

Not wanting to eat too late at night, I often find that a little (or a lot of) water helps quell those urges, although you don’t want to drink too much straight before bed since that might make you need to get up to pee in the middle of the night.

And if you add some minerals to it, such as these trace mineral drops (included among my recommended supplements for everyone), it really will become super healthy for you (not that water isn’t already in general but this is on a whole new level since we often lack and need some of these minerals).

“Don’t fret, just because it’s wet.”

And, that be it for the healthy snacks list, guys!

But:

A good snacking strategy can be to always keep as many/all of these snacks and dips that you enjoy at home (especially your personal favorites) so that you always have a healthy version of what you’re in the mood for to satisfy hunger and cravings.

And so, with all that said let’s summarize :).

Quick Summary:

Snacks are small portions of food or beverages that you have in between your main meals, often due to hunger, cravings, or energy and blood sugar dips, but sometimes because we’re feeling bored, sad, stressed or depressed.
Pick and choose freely from this list of healthy protein rich and vegan friendly snacks, they’re all very healthy and weight loss promoting, just as a good healthy diet is.
Try to keep your favorites (and try those you haven’t) on this list at home at all times to always have something healthy ready to satisfy your snacking urges with.

With this healthy snacking list in mind you can (and should) stop/avoid buying any unhealthy snacks altogether, which will take you a long way if you’re looking to eat healthier.

So!

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Happy healthy snacking!

Did I miss something or what’s your favorite healthy snack? Leave a comment :).