Roasted Chickpeas: The Perfect Healthy Snack

If you are one of the people who often crave for snacks in between meals it can be quite hard to avoid unhealthy products. It becomes even more challenging if you try to maintain your current weight or lose the excess pounds.

We know that chocolate chip cookies, French fries, potato chips, and donuts sound irresistible, but please try to remember that they are bad snack choices. You can still satisfy your hunger with many healthy munchies, such as roasted chickpeas.

Chickpeas are the star ingredient of hummus and are frequently used for cooking in the Middle East. Chickpeas or garbanzos can be roasted, turning them into crunchy and savory snacks. You can even flavor them with various seasonings, but make sure you avoid making them too salty. You will consume too much sodium, which leads to high blood pressure and other health issues.

You can always buy packaged roasted chickpeas from the store, but it would be healthier if you would roast them yourself. You just have to put raw chickpeas on a tray, splash some olive oil, season with a little cayenne pepper, garlic salt or whatever seasoning you like and bake them for 30-40 minutes at 450°F. In the end, you will have the perfect crunchy and healthy snack that will not make you feel guilty for indulging in them.

Health benefits of roasted chickpeas

• Fiber Intake

From half a cup of chickpeas, you get 7.5 grams of fiber, which helps you prevent constipation. The fiber in roasted chickpeas also improves digestion and lowers bad cholesterol, helping prevent colon cancer.

• Maintain Ideal Weight

What is the best part about roasted chickpeas? The fact that they will not make you fat! There are no unhealthy oils used to roast them, and half a cup of roasted chickpeas has only 160 calories. The fact that they are rich in fiber also means that you will feel full for longer, staving off hunger and the cravings for something salty.

• Prevent Blood Sugar Spikes

One of the side effects of consuming unhealthy snacks, filled with a lot of sugar or salt, chemicals, and other preservatives, are spikes in blood sugar, which are very dangerous for any person but especially diabetics. With roasted chickpeas, you can rest assured that your blood sugar will remain at normal levels.

• Good Source of Protein

Half a cup of roasted chickpeas provides 9 grams of protein. No wonder that health-conscious people and vegans turn to chickpeas for their protein supply.

• Prevents Anemia

With a half a cup of roasted chickpeas, you benefit from 22% of your daily iron requirement. Iron prevents anemia, and the blood becomes more efficient in carrying oxygen throughout the body.

• Heart Protection

Some of the best nutrients for the heart are folate, copper, phosphorous and manganese, and roasted chickpeas contain all of them. It also contains potassium which regulates the blood pressure.

Chickpeas are also rich in antioxidants which prevent chronic inflammation, cancer, and accelerated aging.