Snacking, Part Two: Healthy Snacking (Top Ten Low-Carb Snacks Ranked!)

Why Beginners Can Benefit from Snacks

As I explained in part 1, it is optimal, from a health perspective, to eventually ditch the snacking habit.  Having said that, if you are totally new to primal, paleo, low-carb, keto, or carnivore eating, and you are currently a chronic snacker, I would actually encourage you to plan ahead and have low-carb snacks ready.  Why?  Because you’re probably going to get a really strong urge to snack a few days in, and when that happens, you’re way better off chowing down on a bunch of hardboiled eggs, even though you just ate thirty minutes ago, rather than caving and eating a bag of peanut M & M’s. 

Don’t leave this to chance.  When you’re really hungry, your willpower will be lower, and you’ll likely eat whatever is easiest to get ahold of.  So, before the temptation strikes, make a plan so that the good food will be as easy as possible to grab, and the bad food will be as difficult as possible to grab.

If you live alone or your family is supportive, the easiest way to avoid temptation is to get all carby junk food out of the house!  If that’s not possible, do everything you can to put barriers between you and the junk food, to force yourself to think about what you are doing before you start mindlessly eating it.  Don’t keep it at your desk or another easy-to-reach location.  Instead, ask the junk food eaters in the house to hide their snacks, or at least put them in an out-of-the-way spot where you won’t see them constantly.  

Top Ten Healthy Low-Carb Snacks, Ranked.  

Plan ahead and have healthy snacks prepared and ready, and in a spot where you can grab them easily.  What are the best healthy snacks?  The best snacks are high in protein and fat, so they’re satiating, but also low carb, so they won’t spike your blood sugar too much, and (this is a big point), you don’t want to just keep eating them.  So, since everyone loves top-ten lists, here are my rankings of the ten best low-carb healthy snacks, starting with the worst and ending with the best.  Note that even the worst of these are better than a regular, sugar-laden snack like potato chips, ice cream, or candy.  

10.  Commercially Prepared “Keto Treats”.  You know what I’m talking about.  I won’t name specific brands, but they’re ubiquitous: keto peanut butter cups, keto candy bars, keto shakes, keto cookies, keto ice cream, and the list goes on.  I’m not a big fan of these.  They’re way overpriced.  They are made in a chemical factory, and you can’t pronounce half of the ingredients.  They are very easy to overeat.  They bill themselves as being low in “net carbs” because they are full of sugar-alcohols (which are a form of carbohydrate), which can give some people digestive distress and can still spike blood sugar, at least in some people.  Because they taste so much like their “bad” counterparts, they might make it harder to kick cravings than going cold turkey, especially if you have a sweet tooth. 

The benefits?  They taste really good, and are at least marginally better than their sugary counterparts.  If you feel you simply cannot live without peanut butter cups, I would rather see you “compromise” by allowing keto peanut butter cups than throw in the towel.  If you choose to go that route, think of them like nicotine patches or lozenges: a temporary measure to wean you off something worse, not a long-term solution.  1 out of 5 stars, just because they are better than full out cheating. 

9.  Fat Bombs.  Those of you who have been in the keto-space online for any length of time doubtless know about fat bombs; you combine some super-concentrated source of fat (butter, coconut or MCT oil, nut butter), with some other source of flavor (sweeteners, peanuts or nuts, cocoa powder), and mix it into a cute and easy-to-eat ball.  If you make these at home, these have two advantages over commercial keto treats; they’re more affordable, and you can more effectively limit mysterious ingredients. 

Still, because they are so high-fat, they contain a lot of calories (sorry if that’s a dirty word in keto circles), and because they are so tasty, it is really easy to eat a lot of them.  It would be physically difficult for most people to just sit down and eat a stick (or even half a stick) of butter, but easy to eat the equivalent amount of fat in the form of fat bombs.  Yet again, they’re a lot better than eating junk food, but I would save them for occasional treats – especially if you are trying to lose weight and find yourself stalled.  Fat bombs can stall you on keto, even if you’re keeping your carbs low enough.  I suppose they could be helpful if you are a chronic under-eater who is trying to gain weight. 2 out of 5 stars, because they are better than traditional carby snacks and commercial keto treats. 

8.  Dark Chocolate.  Just to clarify, when I say “dark chocolate” I mean at least 75% cocoa.  I eat pure 100% unsweetened chocolate and like it, but if you don’t like that (yet), at least try to slowly get yourself accustomed to darker and darker chocolate.  Anything less than 75% I would consider to be essentially candy – the added sugar will cancel out any health benefits of the cocoa.  (Note that not everything with the words “dark chocolate” on the label is actually that dark.  Always look at the cocoa percentage and the carb count).  Some people can enjoy dark chocolate in moderation without setting off any cravings.  In that case, awesome.  If you find, however, that you can’t moderate yourself with anything in any way chocolatey, no matter how little sugar it has, then stay far away from it.  This really is a person by person thing.  If it works for you, a few squares can make a great snack.  3 out of 5 stars – although, depending on whether or not you can moderate chocolate, it might be more of a 1 star food or more of a 4 star food for you.

7.  Nuts and Nut Butters.  Nuts and nut butters are high-calorie, high fat and moderate protein, and, depending on the variety, moderate to very low-carb.  They are also freakin’ delicious.  That’s the problem with them.  If you have a standard serving (about two tablespoons of nut butter or a quarter cup of nuts), they make a great snack.  But you might find your two tablespoons turning into half a jar, at which point you just packed away a thousand calories and twenty or thirty grams of carbs in what was supposed to be a snack. 

So, like dark chocolate, it depends on whether or not you personally can moderate your consumption.  (And, as an aside, nut butter with dark chocolate is amazing.)  You might do better having your nuts or nut butter with something, like spread on a stick of celery or tossed on a salad with some homemade vinaigrette on top.  You could also try prepacking your nuts in individual quarter-cup portions. The lowest carb nuts include pecans, walnuts, and macadamia nuts, with only four total carbs for a quarter cup; the carbiest are cashews and pistachios with nine carbs for a quarter cup .  Almonds and pumpkin seeds are somewhere in the middle with five or six carbs for a quarter cup.  3 out of 5 stars  – they’re great, if you can moderate them – if not, they can certainly be easy to overeat and stall your weight-loss efforts.

6.  Raw Veggies.  Obviously, if you are doing carnivore, these are off limits (as are items 7 – 10, with the possible exception of fat bombs, depending on what you put into them). If you are not carnivore, they can be a great base for snacks – just be sure to add the carbs to your total for the day.  Veggies can act as a vehicle for nut butter, cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, olive oil, or other fatty condiments that you might overeat if you are eating them straight (you’re less likely to overeat nut butter if you need to eat a stick of celery for every two tablespoons).  Also, they are great along with meat or eggs! Wrap your green bean or bell pepper slice in a slice of chicken, turkey or roast beef.  

Cucumber, celery, green beans, and bell pepper (in small quantities – these are a little carbier) all work great for spreading and dipping.  You can also use ranch dressing, if you either make it yourself or shop around for a brand made with olive or avocado oil rather than soybean oil.  Olives and avocados, which are technically fruits but very low-carb and high in healthy fats, also make great snacks.  3.5 out of 5 stars.  Excellent overall, just remember the two caveats that these are off limits if you are carnivore and that you need to keep an eye on the total carbs.  

5.  Full-Fat Dairy.  At this point, you know the drill – some people find it hard not to overeat dairy, which can stall them.  If that’s you, stay away.  If not, it can be a great snack, in moderation.  Milk and soft cheese have more carbs, so stay away from that, but hard cheese, full-fat yogurt, sour cream, and cream cheese are excellent snacks.  They can also be paired with cucumbers or other low-carb veggies, or deli meat to make a little charcuterie board – or pork rinds!  3.5 out of 5 stars.  Good overall, but not for everyone.  If you are having a hard time losing weight or getting results, significantly reducing or completely cutting dairy is often what it takes to get things moving again.  

Ok, we’ve covered the snacks which I would call “second-tier” – they can be good, but they can also trip some people up.  Now we’re getting into “top-tier” snacks – the snacks which are overall much more likely to work for anyone.  

4.  Deli Meat.  Yes, I know there are preservatives, nitrates, added fillers, blah blah blah.  If you get deli meat with less than 1 gram of carbohydrate per (reasonably-sized) serving, don’t worry about it. It’s way healthier than whatever garbage you used to snack on.  Once you’ve gotten the carb cravings under control and you feel good, then we can start worrying about switching to less “processed” meat sources. 

If you check the carbs, ham, turkey or chicken breast, roast beef, bologna, salami, and pepperoni all make excellent snacks.  Have them by themselves, or pair them with olives or avocados, cucumber, cheese, or mustard and mayonnaise (homemade or made without vegetable oils).  You can also make a wrap using Egg Life wraps (no affiliation, I just like the product.  You can also make them yourself, but it’s a pain in the neck).  Also, not sure it really counts as a deli meat, but precooking and keeping strips of bacon on hand also makes for an amazing snack.   4 our of 5 stars.  Maybe “cleaner” would be better, but they are real meat, almost no carbs, and very tasty and versatile.  

3.  Pork Rinds.  For those of you who don’t know, pork rinds are fried pig skins, left over when the oil is rendered out.  The result is a salty, crispy, vaguely bacon-flavored crunchy snack.  Usually, pork rinds are not cooked in vegetable oils because the rendering process already provides plenty of oil for them to cook in, but check the ingredients.  Also, flavored versions may have some “stealth sugar” in the form of maltodextrin – I usually have the unflavored ones, but if that’s the worst thing you’re eating, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

Pork rinds make a good substitute for conventional snack foods because they have that delightful combination of crunchy and salty, but they’re zero carb.  You can eat them straight, or use as a base for cheese, sour cream, salsa, or any other toppings (I have made pretty good “pork rind nachos” by topping them with salsa and melted cheese).  Some people do find them kind of addictive, so watch out for that – but if you do accidently eat the whole bag, that’s still no carbs. 4 out of 5 stars –  I would say five, except that there is still some danger of eating them compulsively. 

2.  Strips of Cooked Meat (Steak, Chicken, Turkey, etc.).  If you don’t want to take the time to sit down and have a full meal of steak or chicken legs, but you’re hungry and want a snack, there’s no reason you can’t still eat steak or chicken legs, just in smaller portions.  This takes a bit of planning ahead, but it is really one of the most convenient snacks.   Cook a bunch of steak, hamburger patties, chicken tenders, chicken drumsticks or chicken breast, or any other cut of meat you like, then cut it into small strips and keep it in the fridge.  (You can also cook a whole pound of ground beef, ground turkey, or ground chicken in the air fryer and then cut it into strips.)  Eat as many strips as you need to when you’re hungry – you could heat them up, or enjoy them cold, maybe with some mustard or mayonnaise.  5 out of 5 stars – I see no downsides to this one.  It’s literally what you would eat at your main meals anyway, just precooked and prepped so it’s ready to go. 

1. Hardboiled Eggs.  Super-nutritious, super-convenient, and you can make them more fun by putting stuff on them, like pepper or other seasonings, mayonnaise and/or mustard, salsa, cheese, etc.  Also, they have the benefit of being very hard to overeat – hardboiled eggs don’t taste that good, let’s be honest, so very few people will choose to keep forcing them down after they’re already full.  5 out of 5 stars – in my opinion, the perfect snack.  

There you have it.  My favorite low carb snacks, ranked.  What are your favorite low-carb snacks?  Let me know in the comments!