In our town, we have a Family Dollar and a gas station. Both take SNAP benefits. Our Family Dollar has a nice wall of refrigerated and freezer coolers stocked with dairy, meats frozen raw and frozen processed, frozen fruits and vegetables and frozen meals and desserts. Our gas station has a wall of refrigerator cases that sell fresh dairy, meats and fruits and vegetables, like a mini grocery store. They are more expensive than the Save a Lot in the next town, but we have it available right there close to home. Both sell bread and a good assortment of shelf stable foods. We are really lucky.
But I know that not every one is this lucky. So many people only have access to small corner or convenience stores and gas stations not kitted out nearly as nice as ours. For this post I have been combing the web to gather suggestions for the healthiest snack options usually found in these places. The two biggest things to watch for in your food choices are the level of sodium and grams sugar. Choosing things that have a short ingredient list (the best are things with only one or two ingredients, hello nuts!), sodium levels under 600 milligrams per serving and less than 12 grams of sugar per serving.
Here are suggestions for healthy snacks from Cooking Light and the AARP
- Fresh Fruit- obviously if you can choose an apple or banana, that is the best snack
- Dried Fruit- watch the portion size to keep sugar levels down
- Pickles- seriously, how can you go wrong?
- Cheese Sticks- also known as string cheese
- Nuts- the less ingredients, the better. Choose roasted nuts over ones that are seasoned or honey
- Granola Bars- making sure that each bar has less than 12 grams of sugar
- Cereal- go for high fiber, low sugar
- Crackers- and those cracker snack packs that have cheese and grapes or raisins
- Tuna- a lot of places carry tuna in a pouch
Eating solely from a gas station is far from ideal. It is expensive and there are very few options, making it hard to be healthy when all those processed foods are calling our name. Having a few tricks up our sleeve can help us be more successful. We can figure out a few meals using simple ingredients found in our local store. We can also combine less healthy foods with healthier options. Changing our expectation of a meal can also help, for example, my sister packs nuts, pretzels, a string cheese and a fruit in her lunch every day. She doesn't like sandwiches and is more of a grazer, so she can snack all day long instead of sitting down to one meal and has covered her nutritional needs. I know life is hard, and trying to figure out how to eat healthy from the corner store just adds to the work load, but having good health is so worth it, I promise.
Do you have any shopping tips for the gas station or corner store to share? We would love to hear about them, please share!
https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/healthiest-snacks-at-gas-station-convenience-store
https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2020/healthier-choices-convenience-stores.html
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