Mid-afternoon munchies are the worst. You need to eat something to get you through the day, but the choices on offer are usually high in sodium, sugar and/or saturated fats.

Thankfully, there are a handful of snacks on the market that provide a substantial energy boost without compromising your health. This infographic lists 15 of the best.

When it comes to food-focused boards, cheese and/or charcuterie are usually the star. I love both of these things, but they don't have to be the focal point of a snack board, especially when there are so many other types of snacks.

If you are snack-motivated, dips are more than just a party food — dips are a lifestyle. Dipping something salty and crunchy into something creamy is a sensory experience so delightful, I have been known to eat an entire dinner of chips and dip. Onion dip is a favourite, but it takes a bit of time to do it properly, so I like to have a few other "recipes" I can whip up to satisfy my dip craving.

Every party spread, no matter how fancy the shindig, should contain a dip or two. Dips are easy to make, fun to eat, and much loved by pretty much everyone. French onion dip is never a bad choice — you can learn to make an excellent one here — but there are other options. Below you will find three luscious, creamy, flavour-packed dips and spreads to make, take and serve.

I have always enjoyed guests, even unexpected ones. I also really enjoy feeding people, but there's not always time to cook. As such, I have an arsenal of tasty snacks and drinks I like to keep in the kitchen, just in case someone hungry (or thirsty) pops over.

I thought we’d all signed off on every use of bacon. I thought Reddit and Epicurious and Epic Meal Time had taught us that bacon goes with everything. But judging by the looks I get at the diner when I dip my bacon in butter, we have not. We apparently have not collectively agreed that bacon, like french fries or baby carrots, is a dipping food.

If you are a lover of the crunchy and the salty, you have probably, at one point or another, found yourself with various mostly-consumed bags and boxes of chips, crackers and other snack products. Rather than eat them individually, sad handful by sad handful, you should combine them all to make a snack mix.

Good popcorn is great, but most popcorn rarely lives up to its aroma. Fluffy, hot kernels with crunch is the goal, and the key is using way more oil than you think you need.

Plenty of iconic Aussie snacks didn't deserve to die but Australia has had a slightly sordid history when it comes to keeping our snacks free of racist and homophobic undertones.

Here are five Aussie snacks that you won't find in 2018 because they rightly deserved to die.

Traveller, let me give you my most useful tip for visiting Japan: The "konbini" is life. It's a one-stop shop for literally anything a wide-eyed tourist such as yourself may need while you explore the brightly lit corridors of Tokyo, or get swallowed by the serene silence of temples and shrines in Kyoto.

The hummus above may look like ordinary hummus. It's beige. It's creamy. It has a good bit of olive oil on top. But this hummus is special because I made it with refried chickpeas, giving it a nuttier, toastier, slightly more indulgent flavour profile. It is amazing.

In sad news for tiny marsupial chocolate enthusiasts Australia-wide, Cadbury recently killed the Easter Bilby. It's dead and we won't be seeing it this Easter. While Lifehacker has taken a look at some Aussie snacks that have gone the way of the dinosaur in the past - there's plenty of others that we've missed that deserve both recognition and acclaim.

In what I can only call "a crisis of faith", I have made the trend known as "dessert hummus" and found it to be very pleasing. When it was first (gently) suggested I explore dessert hummus by my (sweet and understanding) editor, I demanded a phone call, so alarmed by the concept was I.

If we learned anything from LadyDoritoGate, it's that women hate dumping chip crumbs into their wide-open mouths. But maybe this has nothing to do with keeping up appearances; maybe these savvy women are saving the crumbs for clever, delicious uses.

What a time to be a woman! Not only do we finally have a female Colonel Sanders, but Doritos has announced that they will be producing a quieter, less messy, more female-friendly chip.

These past few years have not been kind to Australian snack lovers. Childhood favourites have been culled and the nation grieved for the loss of a number of iconic local treats. We look back at five local favourites that are gone forever.

Steamed edamame, sprinkled with a little salt, is a fine snack or appetiser, but edmame that is sauteed in butter and garlic, and then sprinkled with some seasoning, is impossible to stop eating.

Awards season is rapidly approaching, which means you should be watching lots of movies - so that you may express your smart and good movie opinions - and eating lots of snacks. A big bowl of fluffy, flavorful popped corn is the obvious, correct choice, but if you find yourself getting a little bored of the basic butter-and-salt situation, we have some ways to branch out.

If you have kids, opening up a bag of cookies means opening up a flood of questions: "What is that?" "Where'd you get that?" "Can I have some?" "Can I have it all?" "Can that be my dinner?"