The Ultimate List of Essential Healthy Office Snacks

Snack packs are an office staple, but not all are created equal. Typical trail mix has so much added sugar and candy that it’s a guilty pleasure of its own. If you’re looking for something that’s equally healthy as it is delicious, then look no further than Youtopia Snacks. These snack packs are portion-controlled bags of goodness, high in protein, low in sugar, and just 130 calories.

With three mouth-wateringly scrumptious flavors like Espresso Obsesso, they’re sure to give you a healthier fix for your craving than the candy bars in the vending machine.

If you’ve tried healthy work snacks before, then you likely already know that nuts are healthy for you, but they can be dry and bland if you don’t mix it up from time to time. Nuts are full of healthy fats and proteins, and while they might be pretty calorie-dense, a small serving can help you stay full for hours. Walnuts are a favorite of ours, packing in crucial Omega 3 oils that help keep you mentally alert and awake throughout the day.

Be careful with nut mixes; we recommend checking the sodium content and staying away from packs that contain too many sweets.

Keeping fruit around the office can be a bit tricky, as prepping them can get messy and softer fruits don’t last very long. If you remember, a long shelf-life is one of the key aspects of a convenient healthy work snack. Apples are a great solution to this problem, allowing you to keep fruits on hand and not worry about them going bad.

Apples are hearty and don’t take any prep work unless you want them sliced. The fiber content is great (4-5g per apple), keeping you satisfied, plus apples contain pectin (a prebiotic), making them great for your digestive system.

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Rice cakes are known as a low-calorie snack, and they’re perfect if you’re looking for a gluten-free alternative to bread, crackers, or any other crunchy, healthy snacks for work.

While rice cakes can still cause a rather high glycemic spike if you over-eat them, having one or two paired with a nut butter makes them a healthy office snacking option that you don’t have to feel guilty about. Most rice cakes come in delicious portion-controlled disks that can range up to the size of a slice of bread, allowing you to take one or two out of the bag and save the rest.

For an multi-textured snack, pair them with a spread of nut butter and some blueberries or bananas on top.

Whatever vegetable you can think of, it probably goes great with hummus. Our favorite hummus veggies are broccoli, carrots, and peppers. Hummus is made from chickpeas, meaning it’s high in fiber and protein, and it’s a perfect dipping sauce for just about anything. It’s a great way to sneak an extra serving of greens into your diet, and given it's long refridgerated shelf life it’s definitely conducive to healthy office snacking!

Some days you might need something that can hold you over until dinner time, meaning it’s time to rev up the breakroom microwave. Oats are a nutritional powerhouse, packing in protein, fiber, and some complex carbohydrates.

So long as you stay away from overly sweet varieties, you’re in the safe-zone. To add some variety, you can flavor your own plain oats to control the sugar. Our favorite oatmeal pairs are bananas and almonds, or diced apples and a spoonful of brown sugar.

Popcorn with sea salt instead of butter is a low-calorie snack that makes healthy office snacking easy. Pre-popped popcorn stays fresher longer and doesn’t take much preparation, or if your break room has a microwave, it’s easy to toss an unpopped bag of popcorn in your purse or backpack and prepare it at work.

One key aspect of keeping popcorn a healthy snack for work is to avoid brands that drown the product in butter. This just adds empty calories, and while it tastes good, it’ll leave you feeling sluggish at the end of the day.

Greek yogurt is another hearty snack that’s easy to eat at work. Plain Greek yogurt is also great for your gut as it’s full of delicious probiotics. Greek yogurt tends to be more substantial than other types of yogurt, meaning it will help keep you feeling full for longer.

If you’re not a big fan of the taste of yogurt, we recommend keeping some fruits around to flavor it to your liking and control the level of sugar that goes into each cup. Our favorite flavorful additives are chopped nuts, grapes, blueberries, bananas, or apples.

A protein shake doesn’t sound inspiring as a healthy office snack, but it gets the job done. If you’re like most people who work a 9-5 in an office, your breakfasts are probably a bit too high in carbohydrates. Protein shakes are a great way to snack in-between meals while also bringing your macronutrient count back into balance.

Be careful with what brand you buy, however, as a lot of protein shake brands add a lot of fillers and sweeteners into the mix, making them a deceivingly not-so-healthy option. This is especially true of pre-made shakes, so be sure to read the label before you buy it.

If you’ve got some time to prepare your meal ahead of time, you can crack open a can of chickpeas the night before and roast them in the oven. You can get creative with the seasonings to satisfy your cravings, and it’ll help cut down the amount of salt that they need.

You can eat these roasted chickpeas plain or add them into your salad for extra protein that comes with a crunch!

No time to prepare the night before? That is fine, too. There are ready-to-go options available, with plenty of brands offering seasoned, roasted chickpeas.

If you prefer simpler snacks that bring you back to childhood, celery and peanut butter is the way to go. For many of us, celery and peanut butter might have been a way that your parents to trick you into eating your vegetables, but maybe Mom had a good idea that's worth listening to. After all, she might have known a thing or two about healthy snacks.

Celery is full of vitamins that are great for your skin, and peanut butter – or any other nut butter of your choice – will contain healthy fats that help keep you full throughout the day.

If you've ever read the nutritional panel for dates then you might be a little surprised to see them on this list. Dates probably don’t strike you as a particularly nutritional or healthy snack for work. They are high in sugar, but they’re a (surprisingly) low GI food, which means your body will process that sugar slower.

Dates also have B vitamins which are important for focus and ideal brain function, keeping you feeling smart and mentally alert throughout the workday.

Kale chips are another healthy office snack that require a little bit of planning ahead of time, but if you’re the type of person who goes for the bag of Lays every day, this is the perfect crunchy switch that will have you eating healthier at work instantly. With kale chips, you get the salt, you get the crunch, and you even get the oils, but you can control how much is thrown in; not to mention it’s nutritious.

As if that wasn’t good enough, kale is a cruciferous vegetable, which means it can help lower inflammation and provide a ton of other health benefits to boot. If you prepare your kale chips at home, we recommend seasoning it with a little bit of sea salt and sesame seed oil or get creative with different spices and find the mix you like the most! If you don’t have time to prepare ahead, there are several brands of kale chips available on the market in a wide variety of flavors.