Fetch’s Favorite Healthy Snack Ideas

Snacking is the downfall of many diets, but planning healthy snack ideas can help you manage your cravings and stick to your nutrition goals. Whether you’re looking for a healthy protein snack to start your day, a healthy sweet snack after lunch or find yourself hunting for healthy late night snacks, Fetch has you covered.

Understanding healthy snacks

What makes a healthy snack? Most healthy snack ideas are:

• Unprocessed or minimally processed
• Have little or no added sugar
• High in protein and fiber
• Low in sodium
• Low in fat

Planned snacks are healthier snacks

A lot of people snack impulsively or out of habit, but planning healthy snack ideas gives you better control over your diet. If you know you’re going to crave sugar somewhere between lunch and the end of your work day, it doesn’t hurt to have a sweet snack available.

Acknowledging you might want or need a snack and having options available makes you less likely to reach for a candy bar or overeat on your next meal.

How to earn rewards on healthy snacks using Fetch

Your future self will be happy you chose healthy snack ideas, but if you need a more immediate reward, you’ve come to the right place. Every time you stock up on healthy snacks, you can earn Fetch points by snapping your receipt. Redeem those points toward gift cards to treat yourself.

Snapping your receipt is just the start. To max out your Fetch points gains, we’ve got three tips for you:

• Shop personalized offers. You’ll find offers in the Fetch app personalized to you, making it easy to score extra points just by trying a specific grocery store or healthy snack.
• Buy boosted brands. You’ll find entire brands with boosted point values in the app. Just look at the brand’s logo: the bigger the flame, the bigger the boost.
• Order online using Fetch Shop. Do your shopping in the Fetch app, through Fetch Shop, and you can earn points on nearly every dollar while someone else walks the aisles filling your order.

Healthy protein snacks

Protein is incredibly important for your body, responsible for everything from muscle maintenance (and building) to hormone production to blood sugar regulation. You shouldn’t have too hard a time finding healthy protein snacks, but this should help you get started:

• Hard-boiled eggs
• Fresh vegetables and Sabra hummus
• Cottage cheese and fresh fruit
• So Delicious greek yogurt with nuts and berries
• Low-salt beef jerky
• Overnight oats with Bob’s Red Mill

Healthy sweet snacks

If you’re struggling to find healthy sweet snacks, you’re not alone. Now, these healthy snack ideas won’t taste like a Snickers or Twix, but they have natural sugars that should still satisfy your sweet tooth:

• Dark chocolate-covered almonds
• Fresh fruit salad
• Nature’s Bakery fig bars (kids should try the strawberry or apple)
• Larabar fruit and nut bars
• Chocolate hummus on banana or apple slices
• Dehydrated or oven-dried strawberries

Healthy late night snacks

It might be tempting to grab a treat before bed, but healthy late night snacks should be light and easily digestible so you can sleep through the night. Smaller portions of the healthy protein or sweet snacks we’ve mentioned are often good ideas; here are a few more:

• Herbal lipton tea with toast
• Sargento reduced fat cheese with Triscuit crackers
• Walnuts or almonds
• Edamame
• Pumpkin seeds
• Dried cherries or cranberries

If you find yourself craving midnight snacks, do your future self a favor: before going to bed, head to the kitchen and set aside a small portion of a snack that’s ready to go. It’s a great way to keep your half-awake self from reaching for candy or ice cream.

What is the healthiest food to snack on?

The healthiest food to snack on is one that satisfies your cravings, gives you the nutrients you need and isn’t loaded with processed ingredients. Your healthy snack ideas might not be the same as mine, but the healthiest should all have some things in common: light, nutrient-filled and accessible. And you need to like them, or else you might start craving junk food instead.

Some of the healthiest foods to snack on include:

• Fresh fruits like apples and bananas
• Seeds, nuts and dried fruits
• Greek yogurt with honey
• Hard boiled eggs
• Air popped popcorn
• Baby carrots or sliced bell peppers with Sabra hummus

What should I eat if I crave junk food? 

It’s normal to be hungry for junk food sometimes, and there’s nothing wrong with it in moderation. But if it feels like your go-to snack, we’ve got some specific suggestions of what you should eat if you crave junk food. 

What to eat instead of chips

If you’re craving junk food and reach for a bag of chips, we’ve got a few different suggestions for what to eat instead of chips:

• Vegetable chips
• Smartfood air-popped popcorn
• Baked kale chips
• Roasted chickpeas
• Fresh sliced cucumbers or bell peppers with dip
• Wasa crispbread whole-grain crackers

What to eat instead of candy

What should you eat if you crave junk food and go hunting for leftover candy from Halloween, Christmas or Easter? Try these sweet tooth solutions:

• Dried fruits like apricots or strawberries
• Low- or no-sugar added raisins or dried cranberries
• Fruit leather or fruit snacks made with real fruit
• Dark chocolate covered nuts

What to eat instead of ice cream

You probably already know what our first recommendation is to eat instead of ice cream:

• Frozen yogurt is one of the easiest swaps for ice cream
• Yasso frozen Greek yogurt bars give you a quick and easy grab-and-go option
• Blended frozen bananas can give you the same consistency of ice cream and natural sweetness without added sugar.
• A smoothie made with low-calorie yogurt and fresh berries.

Tips for adding healthy snacks to your diet

Now that you have some healthy snack ideas, we want to give you some final tips for adding healthy protein snacks and sweets to your diet. You need to make it easier to eat healthy snacks than junk food.

• Prepare snacks in advance, and make sure that the healthier snack ideas are ready to go and easier to access than the less healthy ones.
• Portion control is your friend. Most snacks can be healthy in moderation, and even the healthy snack ideas we’ve given you can be unhealthy if you binge on them.
• Read labels to find healthy sweet and savory snacks. You might be surprised just how healthy some foods are (and how unhealthy others are). Read your labels!

Choose healthy snacks and save with Fetch

Now that you have a suite of healthy snack ideas, open up the Fetch app and start building a grocery list from the personalized offers. If you don’t have the Fetch app yet, download it to start rewarding yourself for eating healthier snacks and cutting out junk food.