The Only Healthy 100 Calorie Snack Pack

A healthy 100 calorie snack item

A healthy 100 calorie snack item

Of the snacks that irritates me the most, "100 Calorie Snack Packs" takes the prize.

Whether it be 100 calorie Oreo cookies, Pringle potato chips, Hostess Twinkies (seriously, what the heck are those?), or Organic Ginger Snap cookies, there isn't much good that can come out of those packages regardless if they're low calorie or not.

100 calorie Hostess Twinkies

I see these all the time on the diet records of people I consult with, usually women for their mid-afternoon meal. And when I ask them about it, they say, "I know they're not good for me, but they're only 100 calories....".

Only 100 Calories? Yeah, and only a crap-load of refined sugars and starches, man made fats and artificial colors and flavors! Not exactly good for you no matter how you look at it.

However, there is one exception, and it's one I include in my own normal meal plan: 

Wholly Guacamole 100 Calorie Snack Packs

The reason I love these little individual servings of guacamole (pictured above) is because they're made with real ingredients: avocados, jalapeno peppers, onions, salt and garlic. And, they taste awesome.

The individual packs are great for keeping this awesome food item fresh by protecting it from air and bacteria that would otherwise cause it to go brown or spoil. Because I'm short on time lately (hello new baby....), I buy prepared guacamole from the store instead of making my own. But, the problem with the larger packages you can buy is that unless you use them fairly fast (say for a party or something), they tend to go brown and lose flavor. So, for me, who uses guacamole in my food every other day, this keeps it looking and tasting good.

Plus, the individual size prevents me from over-indulging when I don't need it (I tend to overeat when there's more than I need in front of me... my stomach sometimes forgets to tell my mouth to stop). Not that it's bad to overeat guacamole, but overeating anything can stall your body composition goals (and mine are to get back in my bikini :) after having the baby... not much farther to go!).

Today I enjoyed this guacamole with some ground turkey and salsa I made to eat for the week. It was a perfect lower carb snack on a day of recovery and relaxation. I tend to keep my carb intake lower on a less active day.

So, if you're looking for a good 100 calorie snack, these single-serve packages of real guacamole are the way to go. You can usually find them in the produce section of your grocery store. If you can't find them, just ask. Or, find a new store... :)

And, just stop fooling yourself: 100 calorie chocolate covered pretzels are no good no matter how you look at it. Real food is best, processed food is not. 

Enjoy!

Posted Aug 22, 2010 by Cassandra Forsythe.
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Comments for This Entry

GravatarMaggie Remenar01:37AM on August 23, 2010

Hi, Cassandra!

Thanks for sharing a heads up on this product. As silly as these may sound, I have a few questions....

1) For quite some time I had purchased organic avocados and made my own guacamole, but then one day there was a precipitous drop off in quality of the avocados in my local stores, with even the seemingly "good" ones turning up mottled with brown spots when I would slice them open upon arriving home.


Outside of the pure convenience factor, do you feel that this being a packaged product is a total non-issue in this case, even if someone were to consume these in place of regular avocados on an exclusive basis (this question is in the spirit of, say, comparing eating canned beans vs. self-prepared dry beans........while the former is perfectly fine in a pinch or once in a while, ideally we'd prepare them ourselves most of the time. I suppose that might be more of an issue with a canned food versus one in a plastic packaging that won't be heated, but I am still curious given all the attention paid to packaging materials and their effect on our health.

Perhaps it is a moot point simply because plastics are so pervasive that avoiding them entirely is not all that feasible, so any added blip from this guacamole packaging, if it were even noteworthy in the first place, wouldn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things.)

2) In a similar vein, I noticed that company has one organic version of their "classic" product and the rest of their line uses conventional avocados. Given that avocados typically make the EWG's "clean 15" list for produce, do you feel there is any reason to seek out the organic version or would the difference, in terms of things we may want to avoid as much as possible coming along for the ride, be negligible to non-existent in a real-world sense when comparing their conventional products to their lone organic one?

I apologize for the somewhat lengthy nature of what should have been straight-forward (albeit likely neurotic-sounding) questions, but thank you for reading them anyway. any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Have an excellent day!

GravatarCrysta07:21AM on August 23, 2010

Thanks for this! My company stocks free snacks in the break room since many of us work long hours - a free vending machine full of candy bars and chips. After requests for healthier options, they've started stocking 100 calorie packs of Oreos, Doritos, donuts, etc. Some people are thrilled by these "healthier" options, but I keep bringing my almonds, string cheese, hummus, etc. Maybe I can convince them to add these guacamole packs to the mix!

GravatarCassandra08:23PM on August 23, 2010

Hi Cassandra! Totally agree with the post. Not just the 100-calorie packs, the "low-fat", "lite", "non-fat", claims also irk me too. Those that are low fat normally have more sugar added to compensate for the taste, and those that claim they are "low sugar" normally have aspartame or other artifical sweeteners added. Not healthy! At all!!! I'm a real advocate of eating REAL foods, not processed, packaged foods. Those guacamole 100-calorie packs look fantastic, though. The shorter the ingredients list, the better! :)

GravatarMimi (Damn the Freshman 15)07:23PM on August 27, 2010

I totally agree on the junk-food snack packs. They drive me nuts when I see them offered on airplane flights. That's not a snack, that's a dessert, and not even a good one! But it's great to see 100-calorie guac packs. Another one I like-- 100-calorie packs of nut butter! Haha, it's so easy to OD on nut butter.

GravatarMorkai09:21AM on September 09, 2010

I found these wholly guacamole packs yesterday, oh my, they are wonderful and taste delicious. I love fresh avocado but generally once I've cracked one open I can't help but eat all of it. And like Maggie I found the quality to be highly variable. Too many times I bought avocado's home to split them open and find them brown and nasty.

I love the convenience of snack packs, they certainly appeal to my lazy nature (and my ocd that has to pick every scrap of white pith off a mandarin segment before I can eat it) but hate the crappy ones out there. Fruit cups are a long time rant of mine. I was overjoyed when I finally saw "No Added Sugar" on a snack pack of mandarins until I looked closer and saw that infuriating "Now made with Splenda" tag on it. Why Oh Why do we have to add any form of sweetener to peaches and mandarins? They are sweet fruits already. It's ridiculous.

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