Healthier Snacking Options – Drizzelicious & Foods Alive

Jul 31, 2025 by

Chef David

Research suggests that a small amount of guilt can actually enhance the pleasure we experience from indulgences. A guilty pleasure is something you indulge in, even though part of you believes it’s wrong. We associate guilt with activities that society has branded as being unnecessary, unproductive, or unhealthy. Marketers exploited this association, creating an emotional connection, making snacking a guilty pleasure, and more desirable.

Snacking is the need to eat between traditional meals, which has increased in response to our busy lifestyle. Snacks can satisfy our bodies’ need for energy or in response to cravings, which is a desire for foods unrelated to hunger.  Find guilt-free, healthy snacks by reading the labels, reducing intake of empty calories from added sweeteners. Focus on snacks that provide protein and fiber, which vary across the spectrum from sweet to savory. We discovered new, healthier snacks, Drizzelious, certified by the OU and CRC, and Foods Alive, certified by the CRC.

Each provides a unique flavor profile, is pareve, and is available online and in stores.

Snacking Sweet – Drizzelicious

If your desire to snack is a response to your sweet tooth, Drizzilicious has reimagined rice cakes and popcorn to provide snacks in a wide range of non-traditional flavors, which are child-friendly and adult indulgent. Their packaging is distinctive, shiny, with a resealable closure that allows you to selectively snack, reseal, and store with ease.

Drizzelicious reimagined mini rice cakes and popcorn by topping them with their signature drizzle, which gives Drizzelicious its sweet taste and unique flavor. Certified pareve by OU and CRC, these addictive, crunchy bite-sized snacks are gluten-free and tree nut free (made in a factory that is tree nut and gluten-free; this factory also processes milk, soy, sesame, and wheat products).

Their mini rice cakes are enhanced with quinoa, chia, and flax. Combined with simple recognizable ingredients, including white rice flour, cane sugar, corn starch, flour, tapioca, palm kernel, and sunflower oils. We found their new flavors, French Toast and Very Berry Bites,  finger-licking good. The French Toast is the sweeter of the two, with maple sugar and cinnamon. Very Berry uses dehydrated purple sweet potato for color and a subtle flavor. We enjoyed their other flavors, including Birthday Cake, Salted Caramel, S’mores, Cinnamon Swirl, and Cookies & Cream. Our testers had a hard time choosing their favorite flavor, and you can’t go wrong no matter what you pick.

A serving of 21 pieces contains 90 calories and one gram of protein. These addictive rice cakes contain only 4 grams of sugar.

Their popcorn is a novel take on small-batch popcorn drizzled with a sweet coating made from sugar palm kernel oil, cane sugar, and a distinctive signature flavor. The cocoa-drizzled popcorn was a crowd pleaser. We enjoyed the peppermint, which is made with crushed peppermint and colored naturally with red cabbage and purple carrot. Birthday Cake is the sweetest, topped with rainbow sugar, making it more whimsical, but maintaining a healthier profile using fruit juice, annatto, and turmeric.

Each serving is 0.8 ounces, about one cup, and contains 120 calories with 1 gram of protein and fiber, and 11 grams of added sugar.

Like all popcorn, Drizzilicious contains some unpopped kernels as well as pieces of the outer shell, which can get stuck in your teeth.

Drizzilicious is produced by Snack Innovations Inc., a family-operated business specializing in the production of innovative snack foods, which are Better-For-You.

Drizzilicious can be found in stores or ordered online.

Drizzilicious could easily become habit-forming.

Savory Snacker – Foods Alive

Foods Alive makes sprouted crisps, non-traditional crackers full of texture and taste, made using a unique process. They soak a variety of omega-3-dense seeds in filtered water to begin the germination process. [Our April 2024 article discusses the benefits of sprouted grains.]

The crisps are high in flavor, fiber, and protein. Food Alive uses bold flavor combinations to create a complex cracker with a crunch. They make eleven varieties, including Tomato & Herb, Salsa Fresca, Lemony Lemon, Onion & Garlic, and Everything crisps. All contain omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9 as well as iron, calcium, and potassium. They provide almost 20% RDA of fiber and 5 grams of protein. The top right corner of each package lets you know the protein, fiber, and omega-3 content.

Our favorite was Everything. Each serving of 6 crisps has 160 calories, 6 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, and 5.2 grams of Omega 3. This powerhouse in a resealable bag is not an ordinary snack-cracker.

The crisps have a surprising mouthfeel because they are made of seeds, shaped as a hexagonal cracker. A look at the ingredients, and it all makes sense. The Lemony Lemon, another of our favorites, is tart and crunchy, although it is a sweeter selection, with 9 grams of sugar. Like all their crisps, it has a seed blend base containing gold flax, sunflower, sesame, and chia, followed by coconut, almonds, and lemon juice. There are also some unusual ingredients: reishi mushroom powder, vanilla extract, maca powder, and lucuma powder.  (Lucama is a superfruit native to South America, with a sweet, buttery flavor.) The Lemony Lemon has 43% RDA of vitamin C, 13% Riboflavin and Thiamin, not to mention folate and niacin.

While it is unconventional, this combination works; we thought it was delicious, nutritious, and all natural.

Why Omega-3? These fatty acids cannot be manufactured by the body and must come from food. Also known as polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development.

One of our favorite savory selections, Onion & Garlic has a simple ingredient list, beginning with the seed blend (which also includes pumpkin), followed by garlic granules, tomato powder, and minced onion. It has 1 gram of sugar, 5 grams of both fiber and protein, and 4.5 grams of omega-3. This is not a shy cracker. It is bold and smells and tastes of garlic. What our team liked best was its unwavering commitment to flavor.

We also tried Rasin’ the Bar trail mix, which uses unroasted (raw) nuts (cashews, pumpkin seeds, and pecans) along with Thompson raisins, dried tart cherries, and dried golden raisins. The texture and taste are exceptional together. (Raw nuts are softer, with a pleasant mouthfeel, and are healthier than roasted nuts.)

A ¼ cup serving has 135 calories, and gives you 5 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber. It provides 20% RDA of vitamin C and 35% RDA of copper, vitamin B12, and Pantothenic acid. What we liked best was its taste. Each handful was a nice mix of sweet and tart. Our team really enjoyed the freshness of the dried fruit in this healthy snack.

Foods Alive is a family company cofounded in 1991 by Michael & Ellen Moor, with their son Matt and his wife Tammy. Foods Alive focuses on making healthy foods using the highest-quality ingredients.

Foods Alive can be purchased in stores and online

Snack Healthy and Happily

With so many healthy options to choose from, embrace your desire to snack without regret. Snacking aligns with our busy lifestyles.

When you have the urge to snack, reach for a healthier option, and snack happily.

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