Last night was an eye opener, though. I have these little sesame bars I bought from Wegmans that are WONDERFUL, healthy (I thought) snacks. I mean, nuts and grains are healthy in moderation, right? Well, I went to a nutrition site to get an idea how healthy these bars are based on limited information, I understand, but it was a bit disheartening.
These bars are about one ounce a piece. As far as I know, they consist of sesame seeds and honey and are hardened to a solid bar. So I plugged in one ounce of sesame seeds and about a teaspoon of honey (best guesstimate) and those little suckers came out to nearly 180 calories each! A few weeks back, before I started the liquid diet, I was eating sometimes three or four in a day thinking they were good for me! WOW! Now I know one of the reasons I wasn't budging with my weight!
The other little surprise was the flax seed I've been adding to my Dannon fat-free yogurt, another treat I do once a day for the calcium/dairy and because it's a good sweet. My sister mentioned adding flax seed for the added fiber because it really doesn't add a taste. I looked those puppies up, though, and two tablespoons (the amount I add) is about 80 calories. Not that 80 calories is a gut buster, but it seems high for such a small amount of stuff. :( And whe you add it to the cup of yogurt (which is 110), plus the few walnuts I toss in for texture (another 30 or 40 calories), you're talking about a 225ish calorie snack! o_O
Well... I guess so long as I plan for it and leave room in my day OR decide to do 1/2 cup instead, I'll be fine.
Those nuts can be a killer on the calories since they contain mostly fat calories (9 calories per gram of fat instead of 4 like carbs and protein) but they are healhty fats that is very healthy for your body. My nut recommends including nuts/seeds but to pay a lot of attention to the serving sizes. An ounce of seeds/nuts a day is much better for your body than an extra ounce of simple carbs :)
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