Fruits make healthy, affordable snacks. We’ll pick on strawberries in this post. 🙂 Strawberries and fruits are a good alternative to fatty prepackaged snack options.

A word about fat and fatty snacks… Our bodies are programmed to store fat, to equip us with a means to respond to hardship (famine, winter, severe illness, etc.) Body fat was a key survival mechanism for our early ancestors, who were exposed to aggressive environmental conditions and severe health risks. Today, most of our society leads an overall sedentary life, without frequent natural opportunities to burn accumulated fat. We live in temperature controlled homes (with air conditioning or heater, depending on the season of the year.) We ride to work or school, and we only set time aside for daily exercise, if under a disciplined regimen. Otherwise, we struggle to carve out time for sporadic exercising, due to our busy life styles.

Strawberries are very low in saturated fat and contain high nutrition value. They are low in cholesterol and sodium. They are an excellent source of vitamin C and folate, which supports red blood cell production and helps prevent anemia, among other benefits. They are also a source of potassium and a good source of dietary fiber and manganese. Eight strawberries provide more vitamin C than an orange and contain antioxidants.

Whether for kids or adults, fresh, juicy strawberries always make a healthy snack option.