Hello
After work, I usually either get a bag of salty chips or something sweet for my salty or sweet cravings (not every day, but a good # of days)
What are some healthier or less bad-for-you snacks you recommend to satisfy my salty cravings or sweet tooth? Hopefully, it can be tasty as well.
Products that can be bought as a single item would be ideal. (or as a pack from Amazon would be cool as well)
Looking forward to your recommendations
41 comments
*** products that can be found in the convenience store
Onigiri?
Wouldn’t cashews or other nuts be better than straight up chips, maybe something like that?
7 sometimes has unsalted almonds which I think are OK.
Onigiri.
Salad chicken.
Nuts.
Boiled Eggs.
Tofu bars (next to salad chicken).
When I go to the office, I always buy a protein bar and greek yogurt at the nearby 7-Eleven and have breakfast at my desk while there’s no one around. Good amount of protein (20g) and not too high in calories (about 200-250 kcal).
The dark Asahi Protein bar (the black one not the red one) is excellent. 15g protein and only 5g carbs… this one [Asahi Protein](https://images.app.goo.gl/hxjSy1RDyBwUZFKX7)
Boiled eggs and salad chicken are my go to, you might think it’s a bit off to just chew a chicken breast or boiled egg as a snack but I do it and see it done often enough. Low calorie, almost pure protein, filling and delicious!
Family Mart also do chicken sticks which are a little easier to eat but they tend to be reformed “chicken” so they can be a bit higher calorie but are stll good.
Popcorn & nuts. Natural filled with lots of vitamins and minerals.
Sweet: maybe a granola bar or something similar.
edamame
Dried ika is pretty low kilocalories and chewy to help with hungry cravings. I bet konbu is even better. Just watch that sodium.
Dried squid.
Dried fruit. Ministop has a lot of interesting varieties, like rambutan.
7-11 has some good yokan. I really liked the annoimo ones, though I think they’re gone for the season now. Not sure how “healthy” they can be called since there’s added sugar, but they do contain real beans (and sweet potato in that kind), so there’s some nutritional value.
The sandwiches with chicken and boiled eggs are a nutritional diamond in the rough. They are the same size as other things but they are low calorie and high in protein because the bread and sauce isn’t sugary
Combini: Oden and yakitori.
Alternative: Bulk almonds from Amazon… combini prices for nuts are highway robbery.
My go-to on those nights are a bag of peanuts and the drinkable yogurt.
Chocolate-covered peanuts if I’m feeling naughty.
Kimchi
A lot of things that have already been said. Salt cravings? Hard call. Healthy foods? *puts on old lady hat* When I came to Japan, convenience stores didn’t have all these groceries!! hahah That really came in after the triple disaster. You young people have it easy! When I diet, though:
* onigiri
* bananas and other fruit
* salads without the dressings
* carrots and other veggies
* There are more varieties of sandwiches now. My default favorite is simple, though, the one that’s tuna on one side, egg on the other.
* nuts
Seven sells these chicken sandwiches with 20g protein, low fat and like 10g dietary fiber. They’re my go to healthy snack option
For the salty cravings:
– Miso soup
– Salty peanuts
– Small salami sticks
For sweet cravings:
– Fruits
– 15g protein bar
5-bean salad
for protein:
– protein bar
– hard boiled eggs
– grilled chicken
– protein yogurt/milk/breadbase
– yakitori momo
healthy:
– ‘fresh’ fruit which are usually at most apples and bananas
– frozen fruit opens up a few more options like berries, mango, strawberries
sweet but at least lower calorie compared to most other snacks:
– garigari-kun icecream (around 60 cals)
– grapefruit icebox (like 15 cals), grape icebox (around 60cals)
– zero calorie jelly (find one you like because there are some that are absolutely awful. best one ive found is the green muscat at mybasket)
For all those who recommended Onigiri : Rice is low GI carbohydrates which your body converts into sugar. It’s barely healthier than a candy bar. Stick to either high protein, or high fat (if on keto).
Banana chips or dried fruit are good for sweet cravings. Those konjac jellies are also pretty good – I try to pick up a few bags of them to keep in the fridge for mindless snacking.
I had some success replacing crisps and tortilla chips with miso soup for that salt kick. But then I discovered the Seims down the road has taco flavoured Doritos for ¥78…
Chikuwa. It’s that weird burnt tube-looking thing that comes in packs of 4 or 5.
The frozen strawberries in 7 are quite nice in summer at least.
Same for the 7 fruit smoothie if you find a place that has the machine.
Banana / oranges and egg for snacks. buy at your local grocery store and for eggs just boil the whole dozen for the week and you are good for the week for snacks.
Edamame is good. I’d also recommend famima’s habanero crispy chicken. Just as tasty as fried chicken but has only about 150 calories and 15g of protein so you don’t feel like shit after eating it.
That string cheese, [さけるチーズ](https://www.meg-snow.com/hokkaido100/sakerucheese/) is a surprisingly healthy snack. Low in carbs, high in protein and less fat than most of the protein bars on sale. A few different flavours available but I stick to “plain”.
Bag of salad.
7/11 have these pots of vegetable sticks with a nice miso type sauce (separated).
Banana.
My local grocery store recently started to have pretty good little trail mix packs, like nuts and dried berries and such. I usually try to stuff a couple in my bag when I go to work for when I get hungry.
I love the sliced apples!
The nut selection is pretty decent. Bonus points for wasabi peas.
Anything except bananas and boiled eggs in unhealthy at conbinis
My number one FAVORITE is 711’s veggie sticks with miso dip. I randomly got the once, and even though I hardly eat convenience store foods anymore, I make a special trip to 711 a couple times a week to get these.
All the knockoff miso dip recipes I’ve tried miss the mark (and the Family Mart and Lawson versions aren’t as good either)
Highly recommend, despite it seeming like a boring option!
That aside, jerky! Lawson has a pretty big selection of different dried meats, and 711’s spicy one is pretty good too
I like getting a bag of mixed nuts and mixed dried fruit. Seems to vary wildly depending on the store, but the 7-11 near my house sells about 10 different kinds of fresh fruit.
ミミガー is pork ears. It’s one of my favorite otsumami to pair with beer
The traditional snacks are quite healthy if you like them.. dried sweet potato strips (干しいも) for sweet cravings, roasted green peas for that salty satisfying crunch (I’m addicted!!), senbei, the various lightly sweetened fruit gelatin snacks that are a lot of eating for very few calories, squid jerky, etc.. but I grew up in east Asia so it’s all familiar and easy choices for me.
An apple 🍎