Prevent Hunger Pains with On-The-Go Snacks

Peanut butter is a yummy way to combat hangriness during the day. Image courtesy of Flickr user thisisbossi. Licensed under CC 2.0 BY-SA.
han•gry, adjective—characterized by crankiness due to lack of food; moodiness as a result of hunger.

That’s right. Hangry. From the English words "hungry" and "angry." Whether or not “hangry” is technically a word is irrelevant because it certainly is a feeling that every college student feels at sometime or another. It’s not unusual for us to be in class during normal lunching hours or for us to simply be too busy to have the time to sit down and have a decent lunch. Sometimes lunch lines in the dining halls are too long for us to even get something at eat on our way to class. To beat the irritability that comes with an unsatisfied stomach, pack yourself a snack to eat on the run so you don’t fall victim to hangriness.

Peanut Butter

Why is peanut butter so awesome? First of all, it’s tasty. I practically grew up on peanut butter, so its delicious creaminess almost always hits the spot when I’m in a hunger crunch. Secondly, peanut butter has protein in it. Protein is like brain food. It’s good for you and it fills you up so you can stop thinking about your stomach growling and start thinking about your professor’s lecture. One of my favorite things to do is put peanut butter either on crackers or on tortillas. Get some crackers of your choice (I prefer Saltines, but whatever floats your boat), put a small blob on a cracker, and put another cracker on top to make yourself a little nice peanut butter cracker sandwich. Make five or six sandwiches (or more if you’re going to be super hungry), pop them in a sandwich bag, stick them in your backpack, and you’re good to go. If crackers aren’t your style, try peanut butter and tortillas instead. I like flour tortillas for this little snack. Just spread the peanut butter on, roll up the tortilla, and put it in a bag for an on-the-go snack.

Cheese

Cheese is seriously like the best thing in the entire world. It’s yummy, it’s good for you, and it goes amazingly with crackers. When I neglected to schedule myself a lunch break last semester, cheese and crackers was my absolute go-to lunch. I bought some Colby jack singles slices at the grocery. Because they’re already sliced, all I had to do was tear the slices in smaller bits to fit on the crackers. Two slices of cheese meant eight cheese-and-cracker duos. Yum. If you’re weird and don’t like crackers, pretend you’re in middle school again and grab yourself some string cheese. Perhaps the only downside to cheese for lunch is that you pretty much have to keep cheese in the fridge before you eat it. Soft, mushy, warm cheese is gross. I was able to keep my cheese slices in the fridge where I worked. I spent a few minutes eating and then was right back to work.

Nuts

Another good snack to eat when you don’t have time to get a meal is nuts. Chris has his own recipe for student trail mix, and so I’ll tell you what mine is. I go to the grocery and buy bottles/jars/bags/whatever of cashews, peanuts, already shelled pistachios, and raisins. Before I leave for class (or the night before if I’m really being awesome), I mix in equal amounts of nuts and raisins in a sandwich bag. If I eat the entire bag that day, great. If I don’t, then it’s still in my bag for the next time I need a little pick-me-up. Check out Chris’ post to see what else you can mix into your own version of trail mix. If you don’t feel like mixing up your own nutty snack, you can buy prepackaged versions as well either at your grocery store or college snack store.

Granola bars

Granola bars are also good meal-substitute choices when you have limited time to eat. They’re small enough to fit in that little pocket in your backpack, they don’t need to be refrigerated, they come in lots of brands and flavors, and they don’t require any prep work from you. I prefer the Nature Valley bars, especially the Oats ‘N Honey kind. Delicious. I usually don’t eat many granola bars simply because I’m hungry about half an hour after I eat one. But hopefully these healthy little bars will help you make it to your next meal.

What are some of your favorite snacks that you eat to combat hunger during the day?

Comments

[aymeric]

Fruits make good snacks too.
I usually throw an apple or a banana in my bag before leaving for work.
Apples are great because of their sweet flavour and their anti-hunger power.
Bananas are brainfood (thank to their high level of potassium) and beat hunger pretty well too.

You might want to avoid fruits that produice a lot of juice (orange, pineapple, kiwi) to prevent any accident with your papers.
Clementine and mandarin are ok though, if you're careful,and they are a good source of vitamin C.

IMHO berries (straw-, rasp-, blue-, ...) are to small and sweet, they are frustrating (there are never enough of them) and also too expensive.

[Drew]

Peanut butter is great, but non-natural kinds have hydrogenated vegetable oils (AKA trans fats). Avoid peanut butter that has hydrogenated vegetable (or soybean or whatever) oils.

[Hunter]

^^ ^^ ^^ still with the spam comments.

[roxy]

Goldfish all the way. Those jumbo sized goldfish containers got me through freshman year. That, and ramen.