Eating healthy isn’t easy, especially in college. Students are constantly busy juggling school, work and social lives, which leads to a lot of on-the-go snacks. It’s important for young adults to provide themselves with quality healthy food items. There are many healthy snacks students can have on the go or at home. Something students can do to begin eating healthier is called a ‘Snack Roundup.’

What is a Snack Roundup?

Gather all the junk food you have, then write them down like you would for a grocery list. Once that’s done, write down a healthy alternative next to the junk food item.

For example, if a small bag of chips is on the list, then an alternative could be fruit snacks or a granola bar. Healthy snacks should be based on your snack preferences or things you might like.

Snacks to replace:

Cheese crackers

Little Debbie treats

Candy bars

Combos

Healthy alternatives:

Cliff Bars

Special K products

Kind Bars

Trail mix

Drink alternatives:

Snack Roundup also works for beverages like Diet Coke, energy drinks and coffee. Alternatives could be water, juices or smoothies.

This idea doesn’t have to apply strictly to on-the-go snacks; it works for snacking at home, too. For late night cravings, instead of eating a whole pint of ice cream, eat apple slices dipped in peanut butter. If you have a peanut allergy, try caramel sauce or another dipping sauce.

Parfaits are another great snack to have at home with yogurt, granola and fruit. For themed nights, like game night or movie night, some healthy alternatives could be pretzel, veggie chips or popcorn with no butter. For candy lovers, Twizzlers, Swedish Fish and Raisinets are some of the healthier options out there, with an average of 150 calories and zero grams of saturated fats.

Snack Roundup is meant to help find healthy alternatives to junk food items. All the snack examples used are meant to help guide you in finding items that will fit your food preferences.