Keep healthy snacks in your desk drawer or locker and avoid the siren call of candy bars, potato chips, and “bad for you” foods found around the workplace. Photo by Mark Preston.
Delicious, Nutritious Foods To Keep In Your Desk Or Locker
One of the biggest diet-killers is the temptation that exists in the workplace, when you’re hungry and there’s nothing good to snack on—only evil temptation in the candy machine, concession stand and order-in menus. While you may not have the time to plan ahead to have crudités, fat-free yogurt and an apple at the ready, here are a drawer full of delicious, healthy snacks that require no refrigeration. Your doctor, trainer and nutritionist would approve! This is Page 1 of a three-page article. Click on the black links below to visit other pages.
Who wants more bad office coffee and boring supermarket tea? The reason for adding sugar to coffee is to make it taste better. If it’s great to begin with, you can enjoy the tea or coffee “black.” For the cost of a latte, you can buy a box of 20 fine tea bags from a specialty food store that will last you a week at work, to the tune of four healthy cups a day. Experiment with different varieties to find the ones you like best. Some places to start: If you don’t want caffeine, try the herbal blends from Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. Read our review of Tzu Thé, a higher-antioxidant Taiwanese green tea that is simply delicious. Pure Inventions Green Tea Extracts come in medicine dropper bottles: Just add a few drops to a glass of cold water and you have a delicious iced green tea, in peach, raspberry and other flavors.
Truly great teas are as complex as wine. Photo by OGVision | CSP.
Bottled Flavored Tea:
Healthy, Fun & Low- or No Calories
Tea is healthy and refreshing. There are so many bottled teas on the market that it’s easy to find something that delights you. Look at the white bottled teas from Inko’s White Tea, lightly sweetened with flavorful fructose (tasty and lower on the glycemic index than sucrose, table sugar). For exotic flavors, the Ito-En line of Tea’s Teas has jasmine, lemongrass and other flavors that taste great without sweetener. Go to a discount store like Costco and buy a flat of 24 bottles; then drive them straight to your workplace.
One of our favorite bottled teas, low-calorie Inko’s comes in delectable fruity flavors. Photo by Melody Lan | THE NIBBLE.
San Pellegrino:
Sparkling Mineral Water
How much flat water can you drink until you long for something else? We drink our share, but then we turn to sparkling waters—they even make swallowing vitamins easier. Depending on the percentage of Total Dissolved Solids, they can have interesting subtle flavors (that’s why we love San Pellegrino) or be more neutral, like Perrier.
Have a case delivered to your office. It doesn’t have to be cold. It’s filling, and very good for you. Visit our Bottled Water Section to discover more sparkling waters.
Parmalat:
Lowfat Milk Or Nonfat Milk
If you like milk in your tea or coffee and your workplace just has powered creamers—essentially, caloric and unhealthy corn syrup and chemicals—BYO milk, in the form of individual Parmalat “juice boxes” of lowfat or skim milk. One box is good for a day (an opened box will keep overnight in the refrigerator); and what you don’t put in your tea, you can drink through the straw for a calcium boost.
