With Christmas approaching I’ve felt inspired to look at some healthier Christmas snack options that are either recipes to make yourself or foods that can be found in the supermarkets. If you have noticed a tendency towards compulsively going back for more helpings, bloating, gas, weight gain, sluggishness, tiredness, joint/muscle aches, ‘hangry’ sugar crashes in yourself or loved ones in the hours after eating meals or snacks containing wheat, sugar or dairy, or suspect that there may be a connection this blog is for you. So my aim is to suggest some healthier alternative snacks that will be as exciting, while being more satisfying, for you to try. Perhaps in the spirit of sharing at Christmas people are more open to trying new foods and discovering new tastes to enjoy and better support their health all year round.

If any of the above symptoms are persistent for you it would be an idea to get them checked out with your GP, you can also come to me for food testing and for kinesiology balancing to improve and boost your digestion.

At Christmastime while growing up with my siblings we would usually stock up on boxes of chocolates, chocolate cakes/desserts, mince pies, lots of cheeses and crackers, crisps, salted nuts and other savoury snacks like Twiglets. And it’s still a tradition in my family to give Terry’s Chocolate Oranges as presents, so you could say we have a sweet tooth!

In fact we still buy all these same foods in for Christmas now, this is such a traditional time of year and it makes sense that we revert to eating how we did growing up at Christmas, also because there’s a lot of social eating that goes on at this time, it’s harder to resist the temptation of foods others are enjoying, and in my family we’ll also be catering to my nieces’ and nephews’ tastes for sweet/savoury snacks. But should you want to keep following any new eating habits that suit you better, knowing you feel better and digest well eating this way there are plenty of swaps you can have instead and introduce your family to.

1. Instead of high sugar milk chocolates which can be so very moreish you could explore dark chocolate alternatives, there are many dark chocolate producers who use beans from different parts of the world, giving the chocolate more complex flavours and a more artisan, special feel that can be just as satisfying, if not more so. In small doses dark chocolate has some impressive health promoting qualities, is richer, and its flavour more full-bodied than milk chocolate. I’m a fan of Hotel du Chocolat for their dark chocolates, or even just a dark Terry’s chocolate orange!
When it comes to cake I am planning to make some sweet potato brownies as an alternative, I like Deliciously Ella’s recipe that relies on naturally caramel flavourful dates for sweetness and ground oats And I’ll be interested to see what my family and loved one think of them.

2. You can get some surprisingly nice gluten-free mince pies in the supermarkets’ Free From section now if mince pies are more your thing, but want to continue steering clear of wheat. And Alpro does really nice soya custard, there really isn’t much difference in the taste to custard made with cow’s milk.

3. Instead of ‘normal’ wheat-based crackers to go with cheese you could chose from rice cakes, oat cakes or crackers made of spelt or rye flour. There’s actually quite a lot of non-wheat cracker options around. I’d check the ingredients list on these as some say they are made of oats on the front of the box for example, but also have a lot of wheat/butter in them which you wouldn’t know unless you checked the back.

4. You can get vegan cheeses made from nuts such as cashews or coconut from health food shops or supermarkets, as well as other non-diary cheese slices and spreads and are really worth exploring if you are keen to minimise your dairy intake. Again family members might be up for trying something new and special you have brought in. This article is an interesting read for its reviews on different vegan cheese options - 8 best vegan cheeses to impress your dairy-free guests this Christmas

5. I don’t really miss potato-based crisps since improving my diet, so won’t be having any Pringles which is another Christmas tradition in my family. The brand Eat Real do lovely baked crisps (so less fat straight away) made of hummus or lentils, and are satisfyingly crunchy and certainly don’t have a weird taste, so are also worth trying. They can be found in supermarkets including Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsburys. Confident and patient bakers could also try making kale crisps, which require a lot of attentiveness during the baking time - How to make perfect kale crisps

6. Sweet, spicy or savoury roasted nuts can be made at home to also help fulfill any pre-christmas baking urges… Lots of recipes can be found on the internet, the key is to roast them at a very low temperature in whatever coating you use. Here’s a recipe for Sweet and spicy nuts.

Do you have any healthy Christmas snack food recipe/purchase ideas that you are keen to use or try this year? Please share them below.