Healthy and Easy Snacks for Skiers and Snowboarders

When you hit the slopes this winter, be sure to pack some snacks to keep your energy up in between your runs down the hill. Here are five healthy, easy-to-prepare snacks you can throw in your pack or pockets to help keep you going throughout the day.

Healthy and Easy Snack for Skiers and Snowboarders #1: Trail Mix

It's widely known that the dried fruits and nuts in trail mix can be packed with healthy fats and vitamins. To be purely healthy though, read the label and watch for hidden sugars or sodium. Regardless, trail mix is healthier than a bag of chips, so throwing one in your bag is easy to do.

You can either make your own trail mix using a variety of nuts and dried fruit of your choosing, or you can buy them prepackaged from any grocery store. Eating trail mix is great for winter sports because they require no preparation and can be eaten straight out of your hand.

Healthy and Easy Snack for Skiers and Snowboarders #2: Power Bars/Meal Bars

Not all power bars taste like cardboard. Power bars fit easily in pockets and hold up well throughout the day. They are also often enough to "tie you over" until you can get to the ski lodge for a proper meal. My favorite meal bars include anything by Fiber One or SlimFast. Snickers also has a great powerbar available on the market. And by great, I mean it tastes good.

Healthy and Easy Snack for Skiers and Snowboarders #3: Granola Bars or Clusters

Bite sized, chewy, crunchy, and absolutely satisfying, granola clusters are great snack food. If you have kids, it's easier to share granola clusters than trying to break a crumbling granola bar.

For traditionalists, granola bars are the way to go. Like the power bars, they fit easily in your pocket and are a great pick me up.

Healthy and Easy Snack for Skiers and Snowboarders #4: Fruit

What's not to love about fruit? It's healthy and sweet. The best types of fresh fruit that won't bruise too much in a skier's pack are bananas and apples. If you don't mind the browning, you can also cut up the apples and store them in a ziplock bag.

Dried fruit also works well as a ski snack because it's more durable than fresh fruit. Again, to choose the healthiest brand, check the label to be sure that the fruit is not drowned in sugar or syrup. If sugar or corn syrup is listed as one of the top three ingredients on a package of dried fruit, you are better off buying the fresh fruit in the produce aisle.

Healthy and Easy Snack for Skiers and Snowboarders #5: Water and Thirst Quenchers

As with any sport, it's important to stay hydrated throughout the day. Carry a bottle of water in your pack. The reusable aluminum kind is best for the environment and saves room in your pack. Or you can also buy Gatorade or Powerade, which has added electrolytes to quench your thirst.

If you don't want to deal with bottles, a great way to store water is with a hydration pack or a backpack with a hydration pack installed. For some great suggestions on where to buy hydration packs, check out this article from AC Contributor Kimberly Sharpe.

Healthy and Easy Snacks for Skiers and Snowboarders: Final Tips

When preparing your snacks for a day on the slopes, make sure to pack an extra ziplock bag to store discarded wrappers and fruit cores until you can get to a garbage bin. You can also throw some napkins into the same ziplock and then discard them with the rest of the wrappers after you use them.

And finally, while snacking is a great way to keep your energy up on the slopes, please keep safety in mind. Snacking should be reserved for time spent in lines, resting at the top of the hill, or on the chair lifts. Remember how our parents told us not to run with food in our mouth? The same applies for skiing and snowboarding. Accidents can happen, so please don't eat while you're in the middle of a run.

Sources:

Personal Experience

Kimberly Sharpe, "The Best Winter Snacks and Packs for Skiers, Snowboarders and Snowshoers", AssociatedContent.com