I’ve written several articles about low calorie foods with 100 calories or less. I’ve covered low calorie dairy, fruit, beverages, snack foods for busy people on the go, healthy carbs, meat, poultry, fish, and seafood. What haven’t I covered? How about baked goods, canned and packaged goods, and other ready to eat items from the grocery store? I’ll lump these together as “other”. What are some of the best choices? Is there anything reasonably healthy?
Whole, fresh, and minimally processed foods are no doubt best for your health and weight loss efforts. But you can find some commercial food items that just might help satisfy your desire for occasionally having something different without an unreasonably high fat, sugar, or calorie cost.
The list I’m providing includes foods I have found in local grocery stores as well as those I’ve discovered in my travels around the country (U.S.A.). Given the staggering number of different food products available I’m sure there are more that could be included. I hope you will share some of your ideas with me and other readers. Thanks!
“Other” Low Calorie Snacks: 100 Calories or Less
Baked Goods
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Small cakes/muffins
Vitalicious:
What’s good: Many of these products have 100 calories or less per serving, provide 4-7 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, lots of vitamins and minerals, and they are low-fat, trans-fat free with no cholesterol.
What’s not so good: Typically the sugar count is on the high side.
Check the nutrition labels to get the right selection for you and your diet.
Zen Bakery:
A few of the Zen bakery “cakes” and muffins have 100 calories or less. They are also a good source of protein and fiber to keep you feeling satisfied longer. Unfortunately, the only place I know of to buy these products is Trader Joe’s. There are no Trader Joe’s anywhere close to where I live.
Blueberry Bran Cake – 80 calories
Blueberry Fiber Cake – 80 calories
Apple Cranberry Fiber Cake – 80 calories
Cranberry Pomegranate Fiber Cake – 100 calories
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Cookies
(Check the labels for the sugar content. Those cookies with fruit, such as Fig Newton, have a natural and healthy source for much of the sugar.)
2 Nabisco 100% Whole Grain Fig Newton Cookies – 100 calories
7 Nabisco Reduced Fat Nilla Wafers – Slightly less than 100 calories
2 Nabisco Honey Maid Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – about 100 calories
4 Grace’s Best Petite Sunflower Seed Cookies – slightly less than 100 calories
Nonni’s Original Biscotti (20g) 1 serving (2 cookies per individual pkg.) – 90 calories
3 Midel Cookies (Gingersnaps or Vanilla Snaps) – 90 calories
5 Country Choice Vanilla Wafers – 100 calories
Nuts/Other
Pecan Almond Peanut Clusters by True North (3 pieces/clusters) – about 102 calories
2 cups plain popcorn – 50 calories
1 large whole “fresh” dill pickle spear – about 5 calories (~210 mg sodium).
Buy “fresh” dill pickles that are sold in the refrigerator case of your grocery store. These pickles have much less sodium than regular dill pickles and must be kept refrigerated. The sodium count on regular dill pickles is very high!
Soup
(The sodium content of many soups can be unnecessarily high. Look for soups with less than 700 mg of sodium per 1 cup serving. Amy’s tends to have lower sodium soups.)
1 cup Light Southwestern-Style Vegetable Campbell’s Vegetable soup – 50 calories (480 mg sodium)
1 cup Amy’s Vegetable Barley soup – 70 calories (580 mg sodium)
1 cup Amy’s Low Fat Butternut Squash – 100 calories (280 mg sodium)
1 cup Amy’s Low Fat Minestrone soup – 90 calories (290 mg sodium)
1 cup Amy’s Chunky Vegetable soup – 60 calories (680 mg sodium)
1 cup Amy’s Low Fat Cream of Tomato soup – 100 calories (340 mg sodium)
Chips
It’s hard to include chips in a healthy low calorie diet. However, there is a way to sneak in a few here and there and make it work if you know what to pick. Most chips have more than 100 calories per 1 oz. serving. You can opt to eat a few less. In addition, if you choose chips with whole grains or pair chips with a tablespoon or two of a healthy dip such as hummus, it can help stabilize blood sugar levels.
Keeping blood sugar levels stabile helps to keep hunger at bay. For other benefits of whole grains you might want to read Whole Grains are a Weight Loss Winner
Athenos Baked Whole Wheat Pita Chips – about 9 chips for slightly less than 100 calories
Plocky’s All Natural Corn, Cracked Whole Wheat, and Brown Rice Chips – 129 calories for 1 oz.
Whole Grain Tortilla Chips (generic and otherwise) – 1 oz. has approximately 140 calories, however you do have the benefit of the whole grain.
Dark Chocolate
1-2 squares of dark chocolate will typically have less than 100 calories BUT it varies by brand. Choose plain dark chocolate with 70% cocoa or more.
Frozen Fruit or Ice Cream Bars
Weight Watcher’s:
Strawberry Smoothy Bar – 60 calories
Chocolate Mousse Bars – 60 calories
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bars – 80 calories
Skinny Cow by Weight Watcher’s:
(A problem with the Skinny Cow products is that the sugar count is typically quite high.)
Chocolate Bar – 100 calories
French Bar – 100 calories
Vanilla Bar – 100 calories
Skinny Dippers by Weight Watcher’s have less sugar than the Skinny Cow products and only 80 calories.
O.k. That’s it. Have you got any product ideas to share?
To read some of my previous articles on low calorie snack foods check out my articles page.
Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy foods!
