How Truckers can Eat Healthy on the Road
If you are a trucker getting ready to hit the road, it can be a challenge choosing food to pack that is healthy. Apex Capital has put together a list of healthy snacks for truckers to pack that you can pick up in the grocery store or truck stop that will help you avoid temptations.
Truck stops can be filled with comfort foods that taste good, but are high in fat, sugar, and carbohydrates, which lack the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to run at its best. By packing your cab with healthy foods, you can control what and how much you are eating, which level your blood sugar, fuel your body, and keep you focused, on staying fit and healthy.
It can be hard to know what foods to pack that will be easy to eat and still give your body energy. Truckers have limited space and different challenges when it comes to finding healthy snacks on the road. Thankfully there are many resources that focus on trucker’s health, such as The Healthy Trucker.
Healthy Snacks for Truckers
Recently, Apex asked our friends on Facebook to share some of their favorite healthy snacks to eat on the road. The following is a list of what y’all shared, plus some Apex favorites!
Nuts: This portable snack is mess-free, convenient and portable, making it the perfect travel companion. Nuts provide a valuable dose of healthy fats, so portion out one ounce or a quarter cup of almonds, cashews, pecans, pistachios, or walnuts for a healthy treat. Watch out for peanuts as they are actually a legume, containing less protein and more carbohydrates than other nuts.
Fruit: Raw fruits are packed full of vitamins and are an optimum source of healthy carbohydrates, plus they are convenient and can satisfy a sweet tooth. Bananas, all types of apples, berries, mangos, plums, grapes, oranges, clementines, melons, kiwi, pears, and pineapple are all healthy fruits that you can stock up on before you get on the road.
Dried Fruit: If you don’t like how messy raw fruits can be, dried fruit is a great option for on the road snacking. Grab a resalable bag of dried cranberries, dried apples, raisins, dried apricot or dried mango to stash in your cab when you are craving something sweet. Be careful to portion out just a little amount and choose dried fruits with no added sugar so there are extra calories or spikes in blood sugar.
Veggie Sticks: Celery and carrot sticks are great for truckers to get their veggies in. We all know that vegetables are packed full of vitamins and nutrients that our bodies need to stay healthy, but eating them can be a challenge. After all, it’s tough to chew on a hunk of lettuce! Truckers can get vital nutrients into their diet by slicing up carrots and celery to have on hand whenever hunger strikes. Some stores even sell veggies pre-cut if you want to avoid the prep-work.
Light Cheese Sticks: Cheese sticks and those with the wax seal, like Babybel®, are great snacks to eat on the road. Cheese will give you a boost in calcium and protein. Since protein curbs hunger and keeps you feeling satisfied, cheese can help you avoid food cravings and temptation. Stick to the “light” varieties to get all the nutritional benefits of cheese without the extra calories.
Yogurt/Peanut Butter Tubes: Portability has never tasted so good! Companies are now making it easier to eat favorites, like yogurt and peanut butter, on-the-go by packaging them in tubes. Grab a tube of peanut butter for essential protein or a tube of yogurt for a calcium and vitamin B boost.
Hard Boiled Eggs: If you peel beforehand, hard boiled eggs are easy to snack on while on the road. Eggs are a great source of protein and your body digests, absorbs, and uses the protein in eggs to keep your body full and satisfied. By storing hard boiled eggs in a small cooler, you can have easy access to a delicious, healthy driving snack.
Beef Jerky: This is one of our clients’ favorite snacks to take on the road. Packed with protein, beef jerky will keep you full so you won’t be tempted to reach for junk food. An additional benefit of beef jerky is it doesn’t raise insulin levels, which means your body won’t store the food as fat. Like a lot of foods on our list, beef jerky is convenient and easy to eat.