These are the 5 worst snacks for weight loss, according to a dietitian

Maybe hummus isn't so healthy

If you're trying to lose weight, some snacks are certainly better than others in terms of keeping your calorie intake in check, says dietitian Susie Burrell. 

With the size of the snacking section in supermarkets increasing each year, it is safe to say that we love a good snack. 

While the desire to give your metabolism a boost by grabbing a snack is strong, the reality is that not all the snacks that we may assume are ‘healthy’, necessarily are, with plenty of ultra-processed foods dominating the snack food aisles. 

So, if you are feeling like you need a top-up in between your meals, here are the snacks as a dietitian I would steer well clear of, simply as they lack any real positive nutritional attributes. 

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Rice crackers

They seem innocent enough - a few plain crackers packed neatly into school-friendly snack packs but nutritionally the brutal truth is that there are not a lot of nutritional positives when it comes to the majority of flavoured rice crackers. 

Not only are they made from refined white rice that sends blood glucose levels soaring, but many of the flavoured varieties still contain added MSG in an attempt to get them tasting like cheese or chicken. Rice crackers also have no dietary fibre or protein, meaning they are the definition of empty calories.

Hummus

In its purest form, made at home from chickpeas and extra virgin olive oil, hummus is a minimally processed food enjoyed with a range of cuisines. On the other hand, when the hummus is found in the dips section of supermarkets, it is likely made with a base of far more processed vegetable oil, than chickpeas. 

Then, when we enjoy it as a snack with high-fat crackers, your 'healthy snack', is a lot more processed fat than protein and a truckload of calories. Save the dips for an occasional platter, and pay a little extra for the higher-quality varieties of hummus that do not have a base of processed vegetable oil.

Hummus isn't as healthy as you may think. Image: Getty

Sweet biscuits

There is an entire aisle in the supermarket dedicated to biscuits, but in Australia, the majority of sweet biscuits for both adults and children are made with a base of refined flour, sugar and vegetable oil, which is likely palm oil. 

This mix of base ingredients would go close to being the worst ingredients you can include in your diet in general, which makes sweet biscuits one of the worst snacks you can reach for.

Processed meat snack packs

There is a wide and growing range of meat, cheese and cracker snack packs in supermarkets, and while they may appear relatively healthy, processed meat isn’t great for us, and our intake should be minimised. 

When processed meat is then teamed with processed crackers made with a base of vegetable oil, there is not much positive nutritionally with this mix of foods.

Give the processed meats a miss. Image: Pexels

Muffins and banana bread

If you bake your own muffins or sweet bread at home using fresh fruit, butter and wholemeal flour as a base, you can create a relatively healthy sweet snack, but unfortunately, this is not how the majority of commercial cakes and muffins are made. 

In Australia there are still several baked goods such as doughnuts and iced cakes that contain trans fats, thanks to the hydrogenated fats used to make them, and with upwards of 20-30g of added sugars per serve, if you can't make a cake at home, you are better off avoiding it.

Originally published as These are the 5 worst snacks for weight loss, according to a dietitian