Snacking is often thought of as something people do because they're bored or they are overeaters. But the Dumb Little Man blog today takes a different tack, saying you should aim to consume 200 calories every two to four hours to keep your blood sugar levels from dipping too low.

"Always plan to snack. It's thinking that you won't eat anything between breakfast and lunch that leaves you standing in front of the candy machine at 10.30 in the morning, starting a cycle that's going to ruin our day."

They've helpfully made a list of the criteria for a healthy snack:

• choose something with a low Glycemic Index (GI)
  
• it must be filling (otherwise, why bother?)
• it must be interesting to eat (crunchy, tasty, contrasting of sweet/sour - this is up to your taste)
• self regulating - which means it's served in a way which will limit how much we eat. You need to control the portion size - not open a large packet of bikkies and graze on them for the rest of the day.

Click through to the article to see their 5 snack suggestions, which include spicy nuts, homemade popcorn and a Mexican diced apple and lime recipe which sounds awesome. Makes my raw cashews and yoghurt seem pretty tame. :) Got any other snack ideas? Share in comments please.

5 Snacks That Will Smash that Afternoon Groggy Feeling [Dumb Little Man]