What to Eat to Help You Sleep Better

Bedtime snacks can help you sleep better? Conventional wisdom says you’re not supposed to eat right before you go to bed. That’s supposed to be the worst time to eat, the time it all goes to your waistline.

But lately I’ve been hearing that it can be good to snack before bed, especially if you have insomnia. My cousin tells me that Cream of Wheat before bed helps her child fall asleep. And a Tylenol PM commercial claims that adults should have a bowl of cereal before bed to improve their sleep.

I decided to look into this a bit more, and I found two good articles on the topic. One is a WebMD article that explains why bedtime snacks can indeed help you sleep. It has to do with your metabolic hormones. If you don’t have enough leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, your body could wake you up. However, the article says that you can’t snack on just anything; you have to choose your snacks wisely. Light dairy and carbohydrate-rich snacks are the way to go. The second article I found, from MedicineNet, also talks about the benefits of snacking before bed, but this one gets into more detail about what to eat and what to avoid.

Here’s a brief summary of the best and worst bedtime snacks, based on the two articles.

The Best Bedtime Snacks:

• Carbohydrates, like a bowl of cold cereal, oatmeal with honey, a banana, a granola bar, some whole wheat crackers or pretzels, or a piece of bread or English muffin. If you need something sweeter, try a few low-fat cookies or a small muffin. These carbs produce tryptophan, which helps you sleep. Oats, honey, and bananas were mentioned as being particularly good carbohydrate sources of tryptophan.
• Dairy. Dairy is also a good source of tryptophan, especially with combined with some carbs. Try a small bowl of cereal with skim milk, or small pieces of cheese with crackers. I like eating a little hot cereal, or a few cookies, and/or a small mug of warm skim milk—I steam it, so it’s like the foam of a cappuccino, without the espresso. And I sprinkle a little cinnamon on top.

Avoid These Bedtime Snacks:

• Protein-rich snacks, such as protein bars, protein-enhanced drinks, and meat jerky. Foods high in protein are harder for your body to break down and digest, and they can interfere with your sleep. So I guess that although eating turkey makes you tired (as everyone jokes on Thanksgiving…), it might not be as good for your sleep as non-protein-rich sources of tryptophan, like oats and honey.
• Big portions/full meals. These can cause heartburn, acid reflux, or choking, or just make you feel uncomfortable.
• High fat snacks. Same as above!
• Spicy snacks. Same as above!
• Anything with caffeine, including food and beverages that have small or hidden amounts of it, like decaf coffee and chocolate.
• Anything too sugary, like candy or sugary cereal or cake. The sugar high and low can interfere with your sleep.

Unfortunately, many people are having more trouble sleeping than usual these days, with financial stresses and all. If this is the case for you, don’t force yourself to go to bed hungry just because you think you’re not supposed to eat late. Have a small bedtime snack, and maybe you’ll sleep better! It won’t be that many additional calories, and besides, you can always cut down at a different meal if you want. Just take good care of yourself!

–Lauren

Kellogg’s health-focused Special K brand has been expanding beyond breakfast foods lately. First, they came out with meal bars and protein water. Now, they’re moving into the savory snacks category with the launch of their new crackers, in two varieties, Multi-Grain and Italian Tomato & Herb. I like Special K products (I often eat the plain cereal or the bars), so I was excited to give these crackers a try.

What I Liked About Them

• They’re flavorful. I tried both kinds, the Multi-Grain ones and the Italian Tomato & Herb ones, and I was happy with each of them.
  • The best way to describe the Multi-Grain ones is that they look and taste sort of like Wheat Thins. (My husband tried one and thought the same thing.) They have a wheaty, almost salty flavor; they don’t taste bland and cardboard-like, as some grainy, healthy crackers or flatbreads do.
  • The Italian Tomato & Herb ones have a strong tomato-y flavor, almost in the way Combos pizza bites do, but without all that fat. In other words, they taste like they should be bad for you, but they’re not! (For another opinion, I gave my mom a packet of the Tomato ones, and she agreed that they were flavorful—in fact, she thought the taste was almost too overwhelming, though she liked them. My husband also said they were a tad intense.)

I should mention that the crackers don’t taste anything like Special K cereal, if that’s what you were expecting. They don’t have that rice base the cereal does; they are made with whole wheat flour.

• They come in satisfying 90-calorie packs. Both flavors come in regular 8-oz boxes or 90-calorie packs. I like the packs because you get 17 crackers for 90 calories (and only 2 grams of fat), which is a really decent amount of crackers for such few calories and low fat! My hunger was actually satisfied after I ate one pack. Other brands of portion-controlled or healthy crackers are more caloric. For example, Wheat Thins have100 calories per pack—okay, not that many more calories, but every bit adds up if you’re watching your weight. Kashi’s TLC Fire Roasted Vegetable Crackers are also more caloric, at 15 crackers for 130 calories (though I’m not sure of the cracker size difference). The Special K ones make me happy because I like being able to munch on a larger number of items for fewer calories. Isn’t it disappointing when you buy crackers or chips and you can only eat three or four of them before reaching 100 or 200 calories? I’d usually rather buy food that I can eat more of for fewer calories. Makes munching more fun! Sometimes you want to pop a lot of food into your mouth and keep eating without having to think so hard.

(By the way, this food volume issue is why I also like snacking on natural popcorn, plain Special K cereal, and carrots. You get to eat more of it for fewer calories. If you’re watching your weight, you should consider eating more foods like carrots that are low in calorie density, because you can eat a lot of them and feel satisfied without having to worry as much about portion control.)

What I Didn’t Like About Them

• They do have a fair number of ingredients, so even though they’re low in calories, they’re probably not as good for your body as all-natural or organic crackers like Barbara’s or Annie’s.
• The crackers are small, so they’re good for munching on by the handful, but they’re not really a cheese-and-crackers kind of cracker (cheese wouldn’t fit on them very well, and the taste might not go). This is not a criticism, more of a warning, so you don’t buy them for that purpose. They’re meant to be more of a personal snacking cracker, not an entertaining cracker like Carr’s. But if you really don’t want to eat them plain, they would work well with dipping—the Multi-Grain ones would work nicely in hummus or babaganoush, and the Italian Tomato & Herb ones would probably go with a cheese dip, like Boursin Light Garlic & Herbs.

Overall

I would definitely eat these again. I like them as a late-afternoon snack to tide me over until dinner.

Where to Find Them

Special K crackers are sold in major grocery stores such as Food Emporium and Pathmark. To find where they’re sold near you, go to their store locator and type in your zip code.

Happy munching,

Lauren

Healthy snacks, especially organic ones, are often more expensive than processed snacks and junk food. And I know everyone is trying to save money these days. But hopefully these coupons will be helpful, and you won’t have to give up some of your favorite good-for-you treats.

(Thanks to DailyCandy, the e-mail newsletter I subscribe to, for tipping me off about Coupon Cabin!)

–Lauren

It may not feel like it yet, but this Friday, March 20th is technically the first day of spring. Rita’s Ices is celebrating with an Italian Ice giveaway! Stop by one of their stores from noon until 10 p.m. on Friday and receive a free 10-oz ice. Yum! (Note to all you healthy snackers: Rita’s has seven sugar-free flavors of ice. And the store has other guilt-free treats like Slenderita, fat-free frozen custard.) To find a store near you, go to their Web site and enter your zip code.

-Lauren

PS My favorite flavor of ice is chocolate (big surprise). What’s yours? Vote below! If you pick "other," write a comment and tell me what it is.

Since my craving for brownies strikes pretty regularly, I can’t always satisfy it with a real, delicious, fattening brownie, or I’d surely pack on the pounds. I try to stick with healthier brownies during the week, and then have a more indulgent kind on weekends (and sometimes Thursdays end up counting as part of the weekend!) and special occasions.

Here’s a roundup of four of the healthiest chocolate brownies I’ve tried—a ready-to-eat one, two frozen varieties, and an easy baking mix.

Glenny’s 100-Calorie Brownies

Type: Ready-to-eat 100-calorie brownies.

Quick Facts: One brownie has 100 calories, 4 grams fat, 7 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein.

Ingredients: Contains mostly organic, recognizable, and natural-sounding ingredients, such as organic cocoa, organic soy flour, organic butter, organic whole eggs, organic milk chocolate chips, and organic evaporated cane juice.

Tastes Like: Slightly drier version of those thin Entenmann’s single fudge brownies.

What I Liked: These are easy to eat on the go. And since one brownie has only 100 calories, you can have one anytime without feeling guilty.

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: They’re kind of thin. I generally like thicker, gooey-er, chunkier brownies. I finished it really quickly and wasn’t fully satisfied. They do taste pretty chocolately, though.

Weight Watchers Smart Ones Brownie à la Mode

Type: Frozen treats.

Quick Facts: One brownie with vanilla ice cream and fudge topping has 200 calories, 4 grams of fat, 3 grams of dietary fiber, and 5 grams of protein.

Ingredients: These contain the longest ingredients list of any brownie on my list. The ingredients include artificial flavor and color. There’s not much real cocoa listed other than some cocoa powder. Then again, it’s not really a fair comparison since these have the ice cream and fudgey sauce that the others don’t. On the plus side, the flour is enriched with minerals, so you get some health benefits.

Tastes Like: Chocolate cake with frozen creamy white stuff on top (good but not really an ice cream taste). The chocolate part tastes more like cake than a brownie to me.

What I Liked: I like that you can microwave these and make them warm (don’t put them on for too long—you don’t want the ice cream to melt too much). But they don’t really taste like brownies, so they don’t really satisfy the brownie craving; they satisfy the cake craving, which is different! And if we’re going in that cake direction, I prefer the Smart Ones Double Fudge Cake.

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: There are two single-serve brownies in the box, and sometimes I’m tempted to eat both! If you have a box of 10 goodies, you know you can’t eat them all, but when there are only two, you’re more tempted…

Vitalicious Deep & Velvety Chocolate VitaBrownie

Type: Frozen treats.

Quick Facts: One brownie has 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 6 grams of dietary fiber, and 4 grams of protein.

Ingredients: These include a lot of real ingredients such as whole wheat flour, egg whites, cocoa, organic evaporated cane juice, real chocolate chips, and walnuts. Bonus: there are lots of added vitamins and minerals. But note that these include maltitol, which has a laxatative effect on some people.

Tastes Like:  These remind me of the Smart Ones in that they are a bit more cake-like than brownie-like (not very fudgey or gooey). My friend thinks they taste a little cornbready.

What I Liked: These make a pretty satisfying snack–one fills me up more than a Glenny’s. And it has tons of vitamins!

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: These are a little grainy tasting and not super-chocolately. They might satisfy your hunger but not your chocolate craving.

No Pudge Fudge Brownies

Type: Baking mix.

Quick Facts: One brownie has 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 1 gram of dietary fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

Ingredients: These are made with all-natural ingredients such as unbleached wheat flour, pure cane sugar, Dutch cocoas, and egg whites. The only thing you have to add to the baking mix is vanilla yogurt (or plain yogurt and vanilla flavor). SO easy!

Tastes Like: These taste like real brownies! Hooray! They’re gooey and have a similar taste to Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines homemade brownies.

What I Liked: I love that the box includes a recipe for how you can make just a single serving. Not everyone wants a whole tray of brownies to his/herself, and not everyone has chocoholics in the family who’ll want some. If you do want to make these for the family, throw out the box and trick your family into believing they’re Duncan Hines. These are so good that your family might not be able to tell they’re fat free.

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: These do take a bit more work than the frozen or ready-to-eat ones. (But they’re still easy!) Also, even though they’re not bad for you, they don’t have the added vitamins/health benefits that the VitaBrownies do.

The Verdict: I’m not sure I have an absolute favorite; it depends on the situation. When I’m at work and I need an afternoon snack, I reach for the Glenny’s. When I have been eating crappily and I want to be good to my body, I eat the VitaBrownies. When I want something fun and pretty to eat, I dig into a Smart Ones. And when I want something that tastes the most like an actual brownie, I make the No Pudge ones!

–Lauren

I sprinkle these nuts in my cereal, oatmeal, and granola, I use them in homemade trail mixes, and I eat them plain by the handful!

Why I like them:

• The flavor. Most flavored nuts are either too salty (e.g., smokehouse almonds) or too sweet (e.g., honey roasted peanuts). And plain, raw or natural almonds are too bland for some people. But Blue Diamond’s Oven Roasted Almonds with Sea Salt are the perfect happy medium—just the right amount of flavor without all the unhealthy gunk. I love the roasted flavor, the crunch, and the delicious addition of sea salt. (The Oven-Roasted line also comes in No Salt, Vanilla Bean, and Cinnamon Brown Sugar. The No Salt ones are great, too—you still get the roasted flavor, so you don’t really miss the salt. I’ve never tried the vanilla or cinnamon ones.)

• The handy container. The Oven-Roasted varieties all come in special, easy-to-open containers (you twist off the top, which is great—I hate nuts where you pull back the sharp aluminum lid; I’ve cut myself twice that way!). The container also has a cool scale on the side so you can measure 1-oz portions. (Speaking of portion control, Blue Diamond does make whole natural almonds in 100-calorie packs, but the Oven-Roasted flavors only come in the large containers for now.)
• Their versatility. As I mentioned in my intro, I eat these several different ways! I usually eat them with breakfast food or by themselves as a late-morning or afternoon snack. Nuts are a great option for a morning snack because they help give you energy.
• The health benefits. Almonds are a good source of the antioxidant Vitamin E, as well as calcium, magnesium, protein, fiber, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

–Lauren

PS Next up on the blog—a roundup of healthy chocolate brownies, and a review of Special K’s new crackers.

Recipe: Chocolate, Almond, and Sea Salt Crostini

1. Make chocolate crostini according to Amanda Hesser’s recipe (she calls them chocolate sea salt toasts). Here are Hesser’s instructions:
   • Preheat your oven to 350 F.
   • Cut a thin baguette diagonally into ¼ inch wedge slices.
   • Place the slices on a baking sheet and top each one with a thin square of bittersweet chocolate (not more than a mouthful of chocolate on each slice).
   • Place them in the oven, and take them out when the chocolate is melted but still holding its shape.
   • Put them on a platter, and sprinkle them with extra virgin olive oil and fleur de sel or coarse sea salt. (And as Hesser says, don’t add too much oil or salt–do it to taste. The salt is not supposed to make these taste salty; its purpose it to bring out  the taste of the chocolate.)
2. Then, my add-on: top each one off with a small sprinkling of slivered, toasted almonds. I like Blue Diamond slivered almonds. I toast them separately in the toaster oven and then add them on when the chocolate crostini come out of the oven. (If you cook the almonds with the chocolate, they won’t be done when the chocolate is done.).
3. Pass them around and enjoy!

By the way, Oprah’s Magazine has a variation on these crostini, with chocolate, dried cherries, and pistachios. These are also a healthy treat. The pistachios and dried cherries have plenty of nutrients. Use dark chocolate, which is better for you than milk. I also love how colorful these ones are; they make a great presentation.

For more of a splurge…

Try Vosges’s Barcelona Bar and Lake Champlain’s Organic Milk Sea Salt and Almonds Chocolate Bar. These are amazing (and no kitchen work required), but they use “dark milk chocolate” (around 40% cacao), which isn’t as healthy as a dark chocolate (which has a higher percentage of cacao content, usually around 70%). I’m normally not a milk chocolate fan, but the milkier chocolate does work great with the salt and nuts. (Note that there are lots of other chocolate bars out there with almonds in them, but I’m talking specifically about ones with sea salt. These are the only two brands I’ve found with chocolate, almonds, and sea salt–sweet and salty perfection.)

-Lauren

I’ve tried many brands and flavors of store-bought granola (Bear Naked, Kellogg’s, Chappaqua Crunch, Ambrosial Granola, Health Valley, Breadshop…) but Feed’s Blueberry Almond is my latest favorite.

Why I Love It

• The unique flavor. Most granolas are a bit too sweet for me, but this one is not. (I have a sweet tooth for chocolately desserts, but not so much for granolas and cereals, where you can get that sugary, artificial candy taste). Feed’s Blueberry Almond Granola is made with a unique combination of poppy seeds, molasses, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, which gives it the perfect blend of light sweetness and spice. I also like the fact that it contains dried blueberries—I’m sick of raisins and craisin! Plus, the blueberries go well with the toasty almonds.

• The packaging. The bag has a simple and clean design; it makes you think of something natural and healthy. The bag is also easily resealable.

What I Don’t Like About It

• It’s highly addictive. (Is it the poppy??) I always eat too much of it. I know it’s healthy, but that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to eat the whole 12-oz bag! According to their Web site, they do make smaller 2-oz bags, but I can never find them at my local Gristedes… (though I should probably just order them online).

• There aren’t enough nuts and blueberries. Sometimes I even add my own almonds because I get fed up that there are so few in the bag (Blue Diamond oven-roasted almonds are a good choice).

• The name. I hate to be nitpicky, but the first time I saw this granola in stores, I didn’t want to try it because the name Feed made me think of bird feed; it just didn’t sound appealing. I can’t remember what ultimately convinced me to try it. Maybe an attractive display… I’m a sucker for good marketing.

How I Enjoy It

 -By the handful before or after a workout, or as a late-morning snack during the day.

 -Sprinkled on Total Greek yogurt (as a morning or afternoon snack, though I usually like yogurt snacks in the morning, and more savory/salty snacks later in the day.

 -With skim milk or soy milk and sliced bananas.

 Other Feed Flavors

-Cranberry coconut

-Raisin nut

-Apple-a-day

-Bitter sweet-ness 

Where to Find It

Feed granola is available in large grocery stores such as Gristedes, Whole Foods, and Shaw’s. Use Feed’s store locator (search by zip or location) to find a store near you that carries it. Or, buy it right from their site.

Overall Rating for Feed’s Blueberry Almond Granola: A

Enjoy!

Lauren

This morning, The Today Show with Hoda and Kathy Lee had an interesting segment on losing weight by snacking. Nutritionist Lisa Dryer said that many people cut out snacking to lose weight, but that this is not a good idea, because your blood sugar gets low and then you may overeat during meals. But that doesn’t mean you should snack on just anything. Dryer gave some tips on choosing the right snacks that will keep you satisfied and healthy between meals. For example, she recommended munching on pistachios, because they can actually help reduce stress (better than reaching for the Ben and Jerry’s when you’re tense…). She also said that choosing puffier foods helps you feel full without ingesting as many calories, and she explained that oils with healthy fats can reduce cravings. Click the picture above or click here to watch the full segment and also read the accompanying article, "Pig out! Drop 10 Pounds by Snacking." The article gets into more detail about eating puffy foods, and also mentions the health benefits of thick foods (like yogurt and pudding) and spicy snacks.

Need some suggestions for puffy snacks? Write me a comment letting me know you’d like to see more about them on the blog, and I’ll add them to my lineup!

-Lauren 

Gayle’s Miracles Dark Chocolate Truffles. These are tasty, soft chocolate truffles created by a nutritionist. Each one has only 30 calories and 1 gram of fat. Two truffles equal 1 Weight Watcher point. Many other truffles by companies like Lindt have over twice that number of calories and three times as much fat. So how does Gayle’s manage to make chocolate that tastes good but is low in calories? Remember my post about chocolate bars, where I explain that some companies use dates  to make chocolate products healthier? Gayle’s Miracles does something similar, but they use figs instead of dates. I noticed figs on their ingredient list, and I think that’s the secret ingredient that helps them achieve a soft center without all the butter and fat. 

Vere. I’ve been hearing a lot about this chocolate company lately. Their motto is "chocolate with benefits." The main thing they talk about is how most of their chocolate is dark, and dark chocolate has lots of health benefits. I’m not impressed with this part–many companies now have dark chocolate lines. What I do think makes Vere stand out is that their chocolate is not only dark (it’s all either 70% or 75%) but is also organic, sustainable, natural, and low in sugar. Plus, Vere has a line of vegan chocolate and a line of diabetic-friendly chocolate. Those of you who have to watch your blood sugar and are used to having limited chocolate options will be happy to know that  the diabetic-friendly bars come in several interesting flavors, including spicy, citrus, and vanilla bean. Yum. My only beef with this company is the cheesy tagline I saw on their Web site: "We only use the Vere best!" Gag. But the packaging is totally elegant and enticing.

Enjoy!

Lauren

PS Next up on the blog: a review of my current favorite granola, Feed.