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Do You Really Want Coca-Cola and Tostitos for Your Super Bowl Snacks?

  • February 03, 2017

To be sure, the Super Bowl is famous as being one of the greatest snack nights of the year, with football fans across the country loading up on processed foods of every kind in anticipation of a long night of chowing-down. According to FoodDive, an online food industry newsletter, this year Diet Coke and Lay’s (chips) products are the top two most popular brands for the Super Bowl fare.

Although grabbing soda and chips for the big night intuitively may seem like the easiest thing to do, did you know there are other snacks that are just as easy to serve and far more healthy? The truth is processed foods only taste good because they’ve been synthetically altered with artificial and natural flavors (that attempt to mimic those found in nature) to trick you into wanting more?

The "flavor" in junk foods often come from sugar, which is more addictive than cocaine, combined with unhealthy fats and highly refined salt, all added in to create addictive food products that trigger taste receptors on your tongue. Instead, opt for stove-popped popcorn cooked in coconut oil with Himalayan salt. 

Many healthy fresh, whole foods taste better than their junk food counterparts, including a tray of strawberries, avocado dip, oven-baked sweet potato chips, watermelon and more. If you’re longing for a sweeter snack, dark chocolate is good, while nuts like almonds and pistachios add crunch to your snack tray. Natural cheese, which is a simple fermented dairy product, made with nothing more than a few basic ingredients — milk, starter culture, salt, and an enzyme called rennet — is also a good choice.