Late Night Snack: "Clean Eating" Approved

Tonight Anthony and I made a late night Kroger run because we were in desperate need of cereal and shredded cheese.... not to be used together.

While Anthony was picking out the cereal, I snuck away to find a little something sweet to satisfy that sugar craving I get every night about 9:00pm. As I stood in front of the bulk containers mesmerized by the chocolate covered pretzels, I remembered a lesson I learned from my Clean Eating magazine.

(Remember, my September Challenge is to cook my way through the two most recent issues of "Clean Eating"... a magazine dedicated to healthy cuisine.)

The July issue of Clean Eating had a wonderful article all about the health benefits of nuts. Pecans are good for your heart health and reduce your risk of cancer. Almonds can help lower cholesterol. Walnuts lower blood pressure and thus stress. Etc... Nuts are good for you. We know this.

So.... There was this lovely trail-mix-of-sorts right next to the chocolate covered pretzels. It had dried papaya, chocolate covered cherries, and nuts in it.

Chocolate covered pretzels.... or trail mix.... chocolate covered pretzels... or trail mix?

The magazine said if I eat nuts, basically I won't get cancer. So I chose the trail mix. It had the perfect balance of sweetness with the dried fruit and few chocolate pieces to make me feel like I was indulging, but I didn't feel completely guilty about it because I was giving my heart a good little nutritional boost from the raw nuts.

Now, here's my beef with Clean Eating: they are sure to give you a big warning not to eat too many of these incredibly healthy little morsels of goodness because of the "high calorie and fat content".

Are you kidding me? Isn't it enough that I chose trail mix over candy??? Seriously, people. Eat healthy, as close to the earth as possible, all things in moderation, but please don't starve yourself or feel guility about eating too many heart-healthy nuts. That's just going too far.