Thursday, November 7, 2013

Healthful and guiltless snacking by SMARTEATS

Snacking is a part of  daily living in most homes. Most of us have  a snack menu for daily living. Due to paucity of time or no time, many are unable to focus on the quality food needs especially when it comes to home made snacks.  Snacking can help ignite energy by giving our body a fuel boost. Eating healthy snacks, in little proportions can help avoid  feeling over hungry or overeating syndrome that often leads to depletion of energy and leads to overweight.

The snack time between meals, many generally end up eating bag of chips or greasy snacks loaded with fat, salt or sweet content. Especially this type of snacking is more prevalent in work places where meetings double up as snack time and even the mini work breaks  and hunger pangs drive  the associates  to the cafeteria loaded with greasy samosas , bonda, bajji, puffs or coke cans.  

When served in a combination, a fried salty snack like a samosa  with a sweet may end up like a mini meal calorie wise. Moreover the white sugar, refined food devoid of minerals, vitamins and nutrients may lead to obesity and adverse problems.

So,  Should we forego the yummy temptations and avoid snacking altogether? 

No, there are many healthy and tasty alternatives if we care to look around. As a rule of thumb, food should be recognisable as something that grows naturally in a field, on a farm or in an orchard, before it’s packaged up and sold – no preservative or processing is necessary. Smarteats is one of them. It was by chance, I saw a call from a fellow blogger  Sangeeta Khanna on a bloggers network and immediately wanted to try the same. I received a smart box containing 6 packets of smarteat all neatly packed and in perfect condition all the way from Delhi. The box had a pack of:


Very berry strawberry: yummy dehydrated  strawberries without any preservatives or artificial colors or flavours, with a shelf life of 9 months. They were like yummy candies, a good substitute for kids who love chocolates.

Fruity Granola Bar: So soft and chewy. It had the goodness of oats, almonds, coconut, apples, grapes, peach( all dehydrated) with honey and brown sugar.

Magic masala roasted nuts:  A combination of subtly spiced cashews and almonds. 

Yummy Jaipuri Mixture:  a roasted mélange of watermelon seeds,peanuts and spices.

Walnut brownie Biscotti- A whole wheat brownie with flavors of dark chocolate and walnuts, almonds, brownsugar, curd etc.,

Fruity Cashew Caribbean cookies : A healthy whole wheat ccokie with crunchy bites of cashews and real fruits like grape and seeds like melon.

When the pack arrived and I tempted my children that  I have got Smarteats, they asked if it was similar to  MCain’s  wedges or like McD’s finger fries.

When they saw the contents, they were least interested initially.  when I told them to try the products, they reluctantly tried and guess what?

 My fussy daughter said the Walnut brownie biscotti was simply delicious and my son who hates nuts in his snack box loved the subtly spiced cashews and almonds.  Overall,  I enjoyed all the products  especially the strawberry  candies and granola bar were simply melting in my mouth despite the crunchy oats. Added to the advantage of  taste was guilt free healthy snacking. 

The above products are from Smarteats. The  co-founder Avni Garg  of Smarteats calls  this  “Healthy eating movement” towards making us and our children, healthier and happier.  Sangeeta, a well known nutritionist and blogger is the recipe scientist who develops and find snacks which are delicious, unique and healthy. These are 100% natural(No artificial flavor, color, preservative or sweetner is used) and made from whole grains only. They have 0% transfat and are high in micronutrients, fiber and have balanced calories.

They are online at www.SmartEats.in and have vibrant community at  www.facebook.com/Smarteats.in 

16 comments:

  1. Nice post. Good snacking habits like this will maintain good health for us in the long run. I am in support of this.

    (But I have a question. Will this equal to 2 idlis and 2 buckets of sambar? Hahaha. Just joking.)

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    1. True SG, Good snacking habits for all. Especially these are ideal for corporate cafetaria where samosas, coke cans and patties rule. And even as after sport snack, late morning snack or for kids snack box.

      2Idlis with 2 buckets of sambar?! wait i am coming to your home to have that and NOi am not joking. I am really coming.LOL.... agreed there is no substitute for wholesome home cooked traditional regional food. But Smarteats are quick pick me ups for snack time:)

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    2. Please do come to our home. We will be delighted. Let us know the date and flight number. Will be at the San Francisco International to receive you.

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    3. Thanks for the warm invite, SG. My husband is in SFO now:)

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  2. @SG - Nothing to beat 2 idlis and 2 buckets of sambhar :):):)

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    1. Right, Ramesh .I Agree and i am coming to your home too for that 2 idlis and 2 buckets of sambar:)

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  3. Thanks for sharing it, I am going to check it, I think I have read Sangeeta khannas blog..

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    1. My pleasure to share the benefits of good health movement, Renu. and yes Sangeeta blogs at Healthy living with Sangeeta Khanna and Banaraskakhana.

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  4. This an interesting snack. I will try it out. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. My pleasure to share ma'am. They are delicious, healthy and easy finger foods too especially for people on the move who complain of 'no time to eat'.

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  5. Thank YOU Asha for helping in spreading the word of this movement. Our team is working very hard to innovate and bring unique, delicious and healthy snacks to people. There are so many myths around the healthy food in a world where "Badam milk" is sold in tonnes which has ingredients of Toned milk and Sugar only!!

    Need a lot of innovation, education and passion to make a difference in people's lives.

    Thanks for being a part of it...
    Avni Garg

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    1. My pleasure Avni :) Good luck to this healthy movement.

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  6. Wow! So many healthy snack options!! Will check them out!!

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    1. I have listed only 6 shilpa. There are many more snacks. It is on their website.

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  7. Very healthy options, nobody can resist. Thanks for sharing Asha.

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    1. True, rama. Irresistable and what's more healthy too. My pleasure:)

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