100 Calorie Snacks

Dieters take note: 100 Calorie snack packs are a great substitute for their higher calorie counter parts!

For many people trying to lose weight, portion control can be the trickiest part. Once you open that Pandora's box of cookies or chips, there's no stopping the snacking! It's easy to eat well over 100 calories worth of chips or cookies without even noticing when the open package sitting next to you. These pre-packed treats are the perfect size to satisfy cravings without blowing your caloric intake limit out of the water!

Another great thing about 100-calorie snack packs, is the convenience factor. It's much easier to toss a single bag of cookies or chips into a purse or lunchbox, than to measure out a reasonable amount of said snack into a sandwich baggie.

Snack food company Nabisco was the mastermind behind the 100-calorie pre-portioned snacks, and with other snack food companies jumping on the 100-calorie bandwagon, grocery store shelves are teeming with 100-calorie options. Nabisco put the first line of 100-calorie snacks on the shelf in July of 2004 with 5 varieties of their most popular cookies and crackers. The recipies were reworked to help meet the calorie limit, and they taste slightly different, but you'd never know it with Nabisco's 100-calorie snacks alone reaching over $10 million in sales within the first 5 months of their release.

While a piece of fruit, or some peanut butter on a slice of apple may be a more nutritionally sound 100 calorie snack, sometimes cookies or chips are what dieters crave. People on restricted calorie diets should probably put those 100 calories toward something more nutritious, but if you are going to cookies and chips, I think prepackaged 100-calorie packs are a good way to go to help keep you from going overboard.