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Snacking is somewhat inevitable at college. You might be up late at night studying or just need something to keep your blood sugar up between all your classes and meetings, so there’s no shame in snacking. However, it is important to try to snack mindfully and make sure you’re trying to eat something relatively healthy while also filling you up and satisfying your taste buds. Here are some of the best popular snack options at Dartmouth:
1) King Arthur Flour (KAF) Maple Sriracha Tofu
KAF is well-known for their decadent pastries and hot beverages, but they also offer some delicious and healthy snack options. My personal favorite is their packages of maple Sriracha tofu — it’s low calorie, filling, high in protein, and the Sriracha kick makes it so much more satisfying than the bland food that’s usually associated with being healthy.
2) Collis Café Smoothies
To be fair, not all Collis smoothies are created equal. If you’re adding soft serve ice cream and juices that are high in sugar, your smoothie probably isn’t the best option and will only give you a sugar rush. But the perk of Collis smoothies is just how versatile and customizable they are. Try using coconut water as your liquid base as a good substitute for flavor and add healthier food like kale or protein powder. If it tastes too blatantly healthy and you have a sweet tooth, try honey as a healthy sweetener.
3) Hummus and Pita Chips or Veggies
Not all snacks have to come as a pre-packaged set; get creative! You can buy cucumber slices or baby carrots and individual cups of hummus. If you’re not feeling vegetables, no biggie, the Stacy’s plain pita chips Novak Café has pair well with hummus too. Though they aren’t ridiculously high in calories, it is relatively high in carbohydrates, so it may feel like a slightly heavier snack, but on the upside, it’ll keep you satiated for a while.
4) Cabot Cheese
Ah, the sharp, tangy taste of some good old Cabot cheese. Cabot cheese is a pretty versatile ingredient, but is a great snack on its own too— its soft texture and creamy pale yellow makes it look like it would be bland like mozzarella, but its sharp end taste will prove you wrong. Dense in calcium and packaged in small portions, it’s a perfect on-the-go snack.
5) Pre-packaged Salads
A couple of different salads, like garden salad, buffalo chicken salad, and chef’s salad have been introduced in the fridges of Novak and Collis Café. They’re quick, easy, portable, and come with the dressing, so you can eat healthy without being bored of monotonous flavors. Low in calories and high in nutrients, salads have always been a quintessential healthy snack, and Dartmouth is no exception.
6) Fruit
Apples, oranges, and bananas are pretty easy to find at any dining location at Dartmouth. Though all three of those fruits are filling and have valuable nutrients (an apple a day keeps the doctor away, oranges are infamous for vitamin c, and bananas are notoriously high in potassium), it’s completely understandable to crave some other types of fruit. KAF has fruit cups, and Courtyard Café also has single serving fruit cups that have grape, pineapple, or mango, and occasionally some types of berries! They’re pricy, but so worth it.
7) Greek Yogurt
’Tis the season for the special edition pumpkin pie greek yogurt! It’s just flavored enough to satisfy a sweet tooth or a craving but is still low in calories and has enough protein to fill you up. Even if pumpkin pie isn’t your thing, you can easily access a wide range of flavors from maple to cherry at almost all dining locations on campus. Still, if none of them do it for you, you can always buy plain and add your own fresh fruit, granola, or other toppings you enjoy, maybe even the acai sold at Collis. Get creative!
8) Garden of Life Bars
Last but not least, an essential snack: granola bars. Lightweight, easy to transport, delicious, filling, and nutrient-dense, granola bars have made their place in our hearts as a great snack item since childhood. But let’s be real: not all granola bars are created equal. Some are sneakily super high in sugar or have other unhealthy additives and some are healthy but as a result taste like cardboard, so it’s really quite difficult to find the perfectly balanced bar. That’s where Garden of Life bars come in— GoL bars are organic, and are only made of 8~10 simple and delicious whole food ingredients. Think organic dates, nuts, and blueberries. They’re also high in protein and fiber without any added sugar, so it’s filling in a healthy way and is an ultimate slow food treat. On top of that, it’s gluten free! Even with special dietary needs, you can safely enjoy GoL bars in their four scrumptious flavors: chocolate coconut, blueberry, chocolate sea salt, and maple sea salt.