Trail Mix – Healthy Snack or Secret Saboteur?

Is trail mix healthy? Trail mix is a popular snack among hikers and campers. It’s small, portable, and can be incredibly nutrient and calorie-dense, making it a great way to keep your energy up as you hike over that mountain! But, is it healthy?

Is Trail Mix Healthy?

Because trail mix is supposed to be a supplemental snack for someone that is working hard or working out. It’s not the best snack for someone trying to watch what they eat. Sure, it might offer more nutritional value overall than a bag of potato chips, but most trail mixes are not as diet-friendly as you think! The problem is that most prepackaged trail mixes are loaded with extra salty nuts, dried fruits (super sugary!), and chocolate. A small package of pre-packaged trail mix could easily be several hundred calories, so the best way to know you are getting a healthy trail mix is to make it at home.

Make Your Own Trail Mix

Nuts

An ounce of most nuts contains between 160 and 200 calories, but they are also jam-packed with vitamins and nutrients, such as vitamin E, protein, and fiber, that make them a critical component of any trail mix. In order to have a healthy trail mix, avoid processed nuts (like honey roasted) because those are bound to be full of extra salt and sugars. Instead, opt for raw almonds, walnuts, and peanuts in their low or no-salt versions.

Dried Fruit

Have you ever looked at the nutritional value of a bag of dried apricots or banana chips? They are overflowing with sugars! That’s because the natural sugars in the fruits will be concentrated when the fruit is dried and plenty of food manufacturers add even more sugar on top of that. Raisins are a prime example. A cup full of raisins contains much more sugar than a cup full of grapes. Because you can fit so many more raisins into a cup! Dried fruits are a great source of nutrition on the trail, and certainly better for you over a candy bar. But, make sure you choose naturally dried fruits with no added sugar and be cognizant of how much you are mixing into your trail mix.

Popcorn

Butter-free popcorn (popped on the stove, not in the microwave) is a great way to add starch to your healthy trail mix. Popcorn is a fairly healthy snack, to begin with, so adding it to your trail mix mixture is a no-brainer.

Chocolate

If you simply can’t have trail mix without chocolate (which makes it less healthy) opt for all-natural dark chocolate chips. Don’t use the kind you normally bake into your cookies. All-natural chocolates have less sugar and you only need a piece or two per handful to satisfy that chocolate craving.

Healthy Gifts

At GourmetGiftBaskets.com we have curated a healthy gift basket collection for our health-conscious customers and their family, friends, and co-workers.

 

 

© Featured photo by MichaelJay from Getty Images