I can't eat salads or tree fruits..... looking for low cal snack ideas.
SwissHausfrau
Posts: 83 Member
I'm quite new to this site and am trying hard to plan my daily food in advance but I have 2 dietary restrictions. I get severe cramps if I eat insoluble fibre, (I use soluble fibre tablets as advised by gastroenterologist) this does mean that a nice big bowl of salad or a piece of fruit is out of the question as raw foods are too fibrous. (I can get away with some leaves and the odd bit of cucumber)
My second problem is that I have oral allergy reactions to tree fruits, so basically anything grown on a tree... avocado, apple, pears etc etc... I can eat berries and blend them into a smoothie daily - so they are not too fibrous
but I'm looking for low cal healthy snack ideas as I find my food intake when I am trying to cut back calories is so boring.... any ideas anyone ??
My second problem is that I have oral allergy reactions to tree fruits, so basically anything grown on a tree... avocado, apple, pears etc etc... I can eat berries and blend them into a smoothie daily - so they are not too fibrous
but I'm looking for low cal healthy snack ideas as I find my food intake when I am trying to cut back calories is so boring.... any ideas anyone ?? 0
Replies
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What kind of calorie range are you looking at?
I like to munch on Goldfish crackers, 30g is like 140 calories and I drink a ton of water with that so I don't feel hungry for a while. As for something a little more protein heavy, 4 oz of chicken breast is about 190 calories (USDA) and I just throw some pizza sauce on it (it's just tomato sauce with italian seasonings) with a pinch of mozarella. That's like 250 calories and keeps me satisfied (protein digests slower than carbs).0 -
What kind of calorie range are you looking at?
I like to munch on Goldfish crackers, 30g is like 140 calories and I drink a ton of water with that so I don't feel hungry for a while. As for something a little more protein heavy, 4 oz of chicken breast is about 190 calories (USDA) and I just throw some pizza sauce on it (it's just tomato sauce with italian seasonings) with a pinch of mozarella. That's like 250 calories and keeps me satisfied (protein digests slower than carbs).
The chicken is a good idea, thank you. I'm looking for up to about 250 cals to stop my attacking crisps or cheese mid afternoon or after exercise...
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Are nuts OK for you or do they count as tree fruit? Cheese (laughing cow or babybel light are under 50 cals)? Yoghurt? With some berries or whatever fruit you can eat. Roasted veg like sweet potato, mushrooms etc? Steamed carrot or broccoli (not sure about the fibre in those though? What about home made veggie soup? Boiled egg. Sliced ham. Half a peanut butter sandwich - or cheese and vegemite if you can't do peanuts. Congee (rice porridge) with chicken and corn (or other veg if you can't eat corn).
Mini tortilla rolled up with scrambled egg and a little bit of spinach or whatever leaves you can eat.
In general, I think my advice is not to look for foods labelled as "snacks". Think about what foods work well for you and prepare a small serve to have as a snack when you need it, that might even mean leftovers from lunch or dinner - I often snack on leftover roast veg like sweet potato or carrot.
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SwissHausfrau wrote: »The chicken is a good idea, thank you. I'm looking for up to about 250 cals to stop my attacking crisps or cheese mid afternoon or after exercise...
Sure thing, I like to boil the chicken fully cooked and then I measure out 1/4 cup of sauce and a pinch of mozarella throw it on there. To melt the cheese and heat the sauce (so it's not refrigerator cold), throw it in the oven for a few minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Super easy and filling.0 -
in VERY small quantities some nuts are OK. I can have a few peanuts or cashews, after 4 or 5 I can feel my tongue tingling though so I do need to be careful. I can't eat hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts. I'll look up a congee recipe, thats an interesting idea as I 'think' my diet is possible too high in protein... the roasted veg is also a good idea and I can just make extra for dinner.
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Boiled eggs are a great snack.1
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Dietician
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I wonder if fruit and veg flesh only would be OK for you? - much of a plant's fibre in contained in the skin and seeds. My mum had to follow a low-fibre diet for a while after major bowel surgery, and her surgeon recommended having tinned fruit - it's very ripe, usually has no skin and is therefore actually pretty low in fibre, whilst still getting the necessary vitamins. Similarly, whilst there was a big cross next to leafy green veg, sieved tomato sauces and strained vegetable juices (passata with no added sugar, or unsweetened carrot juice etc) provided much needed vitamins and minerals without the risk of fibrous products being introduced to a vulnerable gut. In addition, the more you cook fruit and veg, the lower the risk from non-soluble fibre irritating the gut, so cook it til it's soft.
I have no idea how you match all of this up with a tree-fruit allergy - does citrus fruit cause the same reaction as apples/pears etc? I guess there's grapes, berries and melons that are technically not tree fruits. Given I go mad on these types of fruit on a daily basis, I'd recommend eating as much of them as you can safely tolerate. Watermelon, in particular, is a very low-fibre fruit. Saying all of this, I'd probably recommend a good multivitamin, and make sure you're drinking enough water to compensate for the lack of dietary fibre.1 -
Greek yogurt
cottage cheese
Cheese (it's not a bad thing)
Tuna on crackers (you can get the little kits)
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(Omg! Someone who has my same issues! Oral allergy syndrome and plain old allergies make raw fruits and veggies a "no" for me.) Watching this thread closely...1
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kommodevaran wrote: »Dietician
I'm looking into an online one.1 -
dizzieblondeuk wrote: »I wonder if fruit and veg flesh only would be OK for you? - much of a plant's fibre in contained in the skin and seeds. My mum had to follow a low-fibre diet for a while after major bowel surgery, and her surgeon recommended having tinned fruit - it's very ripe, usually has no skin and is therefore actually pretty low in fibre, whilst still getting the necessary vitamins. Similarly, whilst there was a big cross next to leafy green veg, sieved tomato sauces and strained vegetable juices (passata with no added sugar, or unsweetened carrot juice etc) provided much needed vitamins and minerals without the risk of fibrous products being introduced to a vulnerable gut. In addition, the more you cook fruit and veg, the lower the risk from non-soluble fibre irritating the gut, so cook it til it's soft.
I have no idea how you match all of this up with a tree-fruit allergy - does citrus fruit cause the same reaction as apples/pears etc? I guess there's grapes, berries and melons that are technically not tree fruits. Given I go mad on these types of fruit on a daily basis, I'd recommend eating as much of them as you can safely tolerate. Watermelon, in particular, is a very low-fibre fruit. Saying all of this, I'd probably recommend a good multivitamin, and make sure you're drinking enough water to compensate for the lack of dietary fibre.
Great imput - thank you. I can only eat cooked 'tree fruit' as this changes the proteins and doesn't cause the allergic reaction (swollen tongue and throat) I eat a lot of berries everyday in a smoothie - to break down the fibre.
I haven't tried tinned fruits to be honest, I'll give them a shot and see what the reaction is, it could also be that proteins in the fruit have also changed....
Cirtus fruits are fine so far, its apricots, pears, apples, nectrines, grapes, and some melons that give me the most problems. Watermelon is fine, honeydew not... its quite frustrating. It started only about 5 years ago and i have been slowly adding things to the 'not allowed to eat' list ever since
I do take a good multi vitamin... but I'm thinking veg soups may also be a good route to go down... both in terms of nutrients and for a filling snack.1 -
(Omg! Someone who has my same issues! Oral allergy syndrome and plain old allergies make raw fruits and veggies a "no" for me.) Watching this thread closely...
I've never met anyone else either, but my doctor said its quite common !! It was just pineapple and nectrines at first - out of nowhere, and has since slowly gotten worse with more fruits. I was able to eat honey dew / gala melons up until this year....
Mine developed about 5 years ago. I used to get TERRIBLE hayfever. Now I take an anti-histamine (aerius) everyday and use a nose spray (nasonex) every morning too.
Trying to explain to people is hard as i swear most people think I'm making it up 0 -
Boiled eggs are nice. What about little wraps? you can stick some lunch meat/ tuna/cheese in a small tortilla and make some mini quesadillas or if you have a press, that's nice also. I love watermelon, not sure if this is safe for you, it's not from a tree and has very little fiber.
@pebble4321 has the right idea, we don't need to limit ourselves to things that are normally thought of as 'snacks' just like there's no restriction on having typically 'breakfast' things for dinner. Just eat the same food you would have for another meal but in smaller portions
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Spreading cheese and thin slices of ham on crackerbread0
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Eggs are another good option0
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When you say you're craving crisps or cheese in the afternoons, that means salt and fat to me. What about air-popped popcorn with a little bit of butter, string cheese, cottage cheese, rice cakes, pickles, things like that? Can you eat potatoes? You could make baked regular or sweet potatoes, then heat them up with a little butter, sour cream or salsa (or just eat them cold; I like cold baked sweet potato personally).0
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I make chia pudding with either almond or coconut milk, plant based chocolate protein powder and chia seeds. It works for me. ☺️0
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pebble4321 wrote: »In general, I think my advice is not to look for foods labelled as "snacks". Think about what foods work well for you and prepare a small serve to have as a snack when you need it, that might even mean leftovers from lunch or dinner - I often snack on leftover roast veg like sweet potato or carrot.
I love this!! Especially as I brought a chicken breast as one of my snacks today. What was my stigma that this couldn't be a snack? So glad I'm out of that!
I personally like edamame, black bean/chick pea, turkey sausage, sweet potatoes, tuna.0 -
For a sweet fix, sometimes I like rice cakes with jelly or preserves on them. I just ate carrots dipped in laughing cow cheese. I looked and carrots are high in soluble fiber but contain very little insoluble fiber. Can you eat them? 250 calories is a decent amount of food so you should have lots of good snack options.1
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Not to derail the thread, but because it sounds like this is really frustrating for you and it must be a pretty significant issue for your nutritional needs, have you considered allergy therapy? My husband is allergic to pretty much everything and has been doing it for a year or so and it has made a WORLD of difference for him. They can't deal with all allergies (for example, his peanut allergy is so severe that they don't include it in the therapy at all as it would be too dangerous) but it might be worth looking into if you haven't thought about it before. I'm not in the US so I don't know many details about how it works there or if it would be covered, but his is even free for us with a combination of our provincial health care and my work health plan.1
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can you eat grapes? (I ask because it doesn't come from a tree but I could see it potentially having the same impact)
Single portion cheese (babybel, etc), almonds, airpopped popcorn, eggs, pickles, yogurt, pudding, rice cakes (plain w peanut or almond butter is yummy!), sliced cold chicken with some cheese
Edited because I realized you already said you can't have almonds1 -
Not to derail the thread, but because it sounds like this is really frustrating for you and it must be a pretty significant issue for your nutritional needs, have you considered allergy therapy? My husband is allergic to pretty much everything and has been doing it for a year or so and it has made a WORLD of difference for him. They can't deal with all allergies (for example, his peanut allergy is so severe that they don't include it in the therapy at all as it would be too dangerous) but it might be worth looking into if you haven't thought about it before. I'm not in the US so I don't know many details about how it works there or if it would be covered, but his is even free for us with a combination of our provincial health care and my work health plan.
I did ask my nose surgeon - he did a septoplasty and sinus operation last year and he has done a few of the allergy tests for me and he said he didn't think they would help me. Maybe I should ask an allergy specialist and get a second opinion. I live in Switzerland so it is probably covered with my health insurance. How often does your husband have them ?? I am allergic to lots of things, Grass and tree pollen, feathers, cats, and wool. The fruit things is a developing oral allergy that is slowly getting worse. it started about 5 years ago and when I eat fruit my tongue and throat swell. Not enough to kill me, but its very uncomfortable for quite a while.0 -
When you say you're craving crisps or cheese in the afternoons, that means salt and fat to me. What about air-popped popcorn with a little bit of butter, string cheese, cottage cheese, rice cakes, pickles, things like that? Can you eat potatoes? You could make baked regular or sweet potatoes, then heat them up with a little butter, sour cream or salsa (or just eat them cold; I like cold baked sweet potato personally).
I have no idea what cheese strings and I'm fairly certain I can't get them here. I know cottage cheese and rice cakes from the UK, I'l have a look when I'm next in the supermarket. Popcorn is a great idea. I can just sprinkle it with some salt. Now new potatoes are in season I'm going to buy them and eat them cold. 0 -
enterdanger wrote: »For a sweet fix, sometimes I like rice cakes with jelly or preserves on them. I just ate carrots dipped in laughing cow cheese. I looked and carrots are high in soluble fiber but contain very little insoluble fiber. Can you eat them? 250 calories is a decent amount of food so you should have lots of good snack options.
I didn't realise that about carrots and I stayed away from them as I assumed they would be bad. I'll give them a go and see what happens...
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Just on the off chance anyone is interested in Oral Allergy Syndrome here is a link http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/oral-allergy-syndrome-foods0
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SwissHausfrau wrote: »When you say you're craving crisps or cheese in the afternoons, that means salt and fat to me. What about air-popped popcorn with a little bit of butter, string cheese, cottage cheese, rice cakes, pickles, things like that? Can you eat potatoes? You could make baked regular or sweet potatoes, then heat them up with a little butter, sour cream or salsa (or just eat them cold; I like cold baked sweet potato personally).
I have no idea what cheese strings and I'm fairly certain I can't get them here. I know cottage cheese and rice cakes from the UK, I'l have a look when I'm next in the supermarket. Popcorn is a great idea. I can just sprinkle it with some salt. Now new potatoes are in season I'm going to buy them and eat them cold.
String cheese is just individually-packaged servings of mozzarella; it's typically considered a kids' food in the US, but it's relatively low-calorie and high-protein, and since it's individually packaged you're not tempted to keep eating more off a block of cheese. Cheese itself really isn't a bad option (it gives you good protein and fat), but portion control is the challenge.0 -
SwissHausfrau wrote: »Not to derail the thread, but because it sounds like this is really frustrating for you and it must be a pretty significant issue for your nutritional needs, have you considered allergy therapy? My husband is allergic to pretty much everything and has been doing it for a year or so and it has made a WORLD of difference for him. They can't deal with all allergies (for example, his peanut allergy is so severe that they don't include it in the therapy at all as it would be too dangerous) but it might be worth looking into if you haven't thought about it before. I'm not in the US so I don't know many details about how it works there or if it would be covered, but his is even free for us with a combination of our provincial health care and my work health plan.
I did ask my nose surgeon - he did a septoplasty and sinus operation last year and he has done a few of the allergy tests for me and he said he didn't think they would help me. Maybe I should ask an allergy specialist and get a second opinion. I live in Switzerland so it is probably covered with my health insurance. How often does your husband have them ?? I am allergic to lots of things, Grass and tree pollen, feathers, cats, and wool. The fruit things is a developing oral allergy that is slowly getting worse. it started about 5 years ago and when I eat fruit my tongue and throat swell. Not enough to kill me, but its very uncomfortable for quite a while.
You should definitely consider seeing a specialist - my husband had a ton of environmental allergies from pets to pollen and they are incredibly improved now, he hasn't even had to take a antihistamine in ages. When they re-tested him recently most of his milder food allergies seemed to be gone as well, so I no longer have to check every label for tree nuts etc. It's great.
For the first few months, he had to get a shot once a week, but they taper it down and he's going once a month now. It's a very quick appointment and he doesn't have to go to the specialist, the serum gets shipped to a walk-in clinic right by his office and he just pops in after work, has the injection, and then hangs out for a few minutes to make sure he's not reacting. I'm not sure if they would do it differently where you are, but it's been totally worth the small amount of time it takes to have it done.
I don't know that much about it of course and I know it doesn't work for everything and everyone, but I did want to mention it because it's made a really big difference to his quality of life.1 -
For low cal for volume you look for added water or air. Watermelon. Popcorn. Wheat puffs. Air popped rice, millet, etc.0
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SwissHausfrau wrote: »When you say you're craving crisps or cheese in the afternoons, that means salt and fat to me. What about air-popped popcorn with a little bit of butter, string cheese, cottage cheese, rice cakes, pickles, things like that? Can you eat potatoes? You could make baked regular or sweet potatoes, then heat them up with a little butter, sour cream or salsa (or just eat them cold; I like cold baked sweet potato personally).
I have no idea what cheese strings and I'm fairly certain I can't get them here. I know cottage cheese and rice cakes from the UK, I'l have a look when I'm next in the supermarket. Popcorn is a great idea. I can just sprinkle it with some salt. Now new potatoes are in season I'm going to buy them and eat them cold.
String cheese is just individually-packaged servings of mozzarella; it's typically considered a kids' food in the US, but it's relatively low-calorie and high-protein, and since it's individually packaged you're not tempted to keep eating more off a block of cheese. Cheese itself really isn't a bad option (it gives you good protein and fat), but portion control is the challenge.
portion control is tough. I love cheese and live in Switzerland where we have amazing cheeses.... its so hard to just have one small square....0
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