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Publication #FCS8698-ENG

Healthy Eating for Elders: Smart Snacking1

Jennifer Hillan2

Snacking can be good for you! Healthy snacks provide vitamins and minerals that may be lacking from your main meals. Keep these smart snacking tips in mind the next time you have a “snack attack."

Follow the Pyramid

Choose nutrient-rich snacks from all the basic five food groups:

  • Fruits

  • Vegetables

  • Meat and alternates

  • Milk, yogurt, and cheese

• Bread, cereal, rice, and pasta

Choose a Variety of Snacks

Don't pick the same snack food over and over. Try new foods or different forms of your old favorites such as frozen bananas or grapes!

Keep it Convenient

Have healthy snacks available and ready to eat. Keep fruit washed and vegetables cleaned and sliced for easy snacking!

Plan for Snacking

Eat snacks two to three hours before mealtime so that you don't ruin your appetite for the next main meal.

When to Snack?

Snack only when you're hungry. Avoid snacking when you are just bored or stressed. In those cases, find something else to do like read a magazine or walk around the block.

Go Easy on the Pyramid Tip

Snacks like chips and candy are okay once in a while, but choose most of your snacks from the basic five food groups.

Footnotes

1.

This is document FCS 8698-ENG, one in a series of the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Publication date: February 2005. This leaflet was developed with funding from the Florida Department of Elder Affairs in partnership with state, county, and local agencies. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu

2.

Jennifer Hillan, MSH, RD, LD/N, former ENAFS nutrition educator/trainer, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Reviewed by Linda B. Bobroff, PhD, RD, LD/N, professor, and Leigh Ann Martin, MESS, former ENAFS project coordinator, University of Florida.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.