Clean eating offers many health benefits from increased energy to decreased risk of disease. The only downside is that it can be costly especially if you buy all organics. Let’s dive into the best clean eating snacks to buy at Costco.
Costco helps our family save money on clean eating especially on snack staples like fruits, veggies, eggs and cheese. If you are new to Costco, my Costco Clean Eating Shopping List may give you some insight on what clean eating foods are available.
In this post, I’ll share the 13 best clean eating snacks to buy at Costco in my opinion. But first, what is clean eating anyways?
What is Clean Eating?
Clean eating means eating whole food or real food as some call it. Clean eating doesn’t usually call for omitting food groups, tracking portions or considering ratios. The term almost always refers to the state of the food and how processed it is.
Clean eating is centered around foods in their natural state with little or no processing. As with all things, the phrase “clean eating” gets tossed around and is sometimes used quite freely or really, really strictly.
Each person may have a slightly different definition of clean eating. If you want more info. on the specifics of clean eating, check out my related post, What Does It Mean to Eat Clean.”
Why Clean Eating?
The biggest benefit of clean eating is that it cuts out ultra processed foods from your diet, which in turn makes room for loads of fresh fruits, veggies, nuts/seeds, etc. According to a 2022 study (among others), the more processed food you eat, the higher your risk of all-cause mortality. Yes, it’s that serious!
The good news is that when you reduce your ultra processed food intake and replace those calories with minimally processed foods, your risk of all-cause mortality goes down.
In a recent Huberman Lab Podcast interview, Dr. Robert Lustig suggested most people could get by with about 10% ultra processed food in their diet and not suffer major health consequences.
If you’d like motivation in giving up ultra-processed food and sugar, you’ll definitely want to watch that interview.
What’s The Difference Between Processed Food and Ultra-Processed Food?
This question comes up a lot. Any method of cooking is technically considered processing so even something like a boiled egg is a processed food. The difference is the process of boiling an egg does not significantly change the nutritional value of the food, so it’s still a healthy food.
Ultra-processed food is a food that no longer resembles the natural state of the food it came from. It also has a diminished nutritional value and the processing usually makes the food harmful for consumption. Turning a potato into a potato chip is a common example of ultra processing.
Another very popular example is how Starbucks takes a magical super food like a coffee bean and turns it into a Frappuccino with approximately 54 grams of sugar. Sigh …
Now, moving on to those Costco clean eating snacks.
Best 10 Costco Clean Eating Snacks to Buy at Costco
Dried Mangos
If you’ve read one of my other Costco posts, you know Kirkland dried mangos are close to my heart. I have eaten dried mangos from every grocery store in my area and none of them compare to Kirkland Dried Organic Mangos.
With dried fruits, sometimes the taste is just off—I suspect that batch of fruit is on its last leg! This happens about 50% of the time with most brands, but I’ve only had this happen once with the Kirkland brand of dried mangos.
If you loved Starbursts as a kid, but you don’t eat them anymore, these are for you. Dried mangos are seriously nature’s Starbursts! I have to be careful not to overdo it.
Fruits and Veggies
This category could be endless, of course. Costco offers a huge variety of produce with lots of organic options. Some of my favorites are the bulk baby carrots (yes, I know about the bleach bath, but I often buy them, because, well, life!), pre-cut broccoli, berry varieties, apples, zucchini, baby peppers, etc.
We also get spinach and frozen berries to make smoothies, which make for an A+ snack. Costco offers organic options for all of the produce I mention here.
Boiled Eggs or Just Eggs
It’s hard to beat the nutrition profile of an egg. Costco offers 2 dozen organic free-range eggs at a great price, and they even carry the same quality boiled eggs for convenience.
I personally boil my own eggs, but if you are crunched for time, pre-boiled eggs could be a nice option. Actually, maybe I should try them actually as many boiled eggs as I ruin while trying to peel them ;).
Please comment if you know the secret to perfectly peeled boiled eggs. I have tried a few tricks over the years, but they seem to be hit or miss. Always, always a miss when I need to make deviled eggs for a holiday meal!
Greek Yogurt
Yogurt can be tricky and tends to contain lots of hidden sugar. My rule of thumb is, if it’s not plain, then it’s most likely loaded with sugar. Costco carries various brands of unsweetened Greek yogurts most of the time.
Even the lower sugar yogurts, have more sugar in them than I care for unless you are having it as dessert.
One of my favorite clean eating snacks is a small bowl of yogurt with fresh blueberries and a handful of crushed pecans. Just 1/2 tsp. of maple syrup or honey is enough to knock off the tartness and create a yummy, subtly sweet snack or dessert that is nearly added sugar free.
Raw of Dry Roasted Nuts
The scoop on nuts is they are often roasted with cheap inflammatory oils. In the spirit of keeping it clean, you want to opt for dry roasted or raw nuts. Due to the amount and types of the pesticides used on many nut varieties, I buy those organic as often as I can.
Costco offers a few raw options, but I can’t say I’ve seen many dry roasted nuts. I’m a fan of the raw organic cashews and almonds.
Cheese Sticks/Mozzarella Balls
Costco’s Poly-O organic cheese sticks are a favorite for my kids. I personally love the Bel Gioioso mozzarella balls. One of my favorite snacks or light lunches is mozzarella balls, pitted whole black olives and cherry tomatoes. Yum!
Another perk to having mozzarella balls on hand is that you are always ready to make homemade pizza. These are the perfect size to toss on a pizza.
Guacamole
I consider most guacamole to be a clean eating snack. With something like guacamole, you want to be sure the first ingredient is avocados, the ingredient list is short and only contains natural preservatives like citric acid and citrus juices.
Kirkland organic guacamole comes in family and snack size. The snack size option is a staple in my daughter’s lunch bag. You can pair it with veggies or a simple-ingredient tortilla chip.
Beware as most tortilla chips, including the Kirkland brand, contain canola oil, which is an inflammatory oil. Maiz is one on the only brands I have found that doesn’t use some type of seed oil.
Pickles and Olives
These two items are probably the best deals in this post compared to the local grocery store. Organic olives and pickles are not cheap. At the time of this post, this 34 oz. jar of pitted kalamata olives is $6.49 at my local Costco, and this 46 oz. jar of baby dill pickles is just $4.99.
To buy this amount of the same quality product at my local grocery would cost about triple this price. Our family loves olives and pickles, so these two are must haves!
Hummus
Hummus is another tricky food item to buy clean. There are only a few brands of hummus that don’t contain unhealthy oils. The Kirkland brand hummus (and Cedar’s) contains sunflower oil, which Functional Medicine expert Dr, Mark Hyman refers to as an inflammatory oil.
Fountain of Health is one brand that only contains chickpeas, tahini and spices. It’s my choice for clean store-bought hummus, and it’s often available at Costco.
Just like the guacamole, hummus is great paired with veggies or a simple-ingredient tortilla chip.
RX Bars
If you’re looking for a bar with clean ingredients, RX Bars are a pretty good choice. They only contain a handful of simple ingredients, no added sugar, a decent amount of protein, and they taste pretty good too IMHO.
Here is the nutrition label for the Chocolate PeanutButter RX Bar.
The only downside of RX Bars is that they aren’t organic. For specifics on what organics Costco carries, see my related post, Is It Cheaper to Buy Organic Foods at Costco?
That’s It Bars
I wished these would have been around when my kids were small. I feel like would make an amazing toddler on-the-go snack. They are simply pureed fruit blended into a convenient bar, They aren’t messy, so they make a great snack to take in the car.
That being said, my older kids like them, and I enjoy them as an adult as well. They contain zero added sugar and zero preservatives, which is such a rarity in the snack world.
That’s It Bars are not organic, but they are non-GMO.
Archer Turkey or Beef Sticks
It’s nice to see healthier meat sticks on the market like Archer 100% Natural Turkey Minis. They are a filling snack option and go great paired with a cheese stick.
Unfortunately, when you preserve meat, naturally occurring nitrates are always present even if the label says “nitrate free.” While naturally occurring nitrates may be a bit healthier than added nitrates, any type of preserved meat raises your cancer risk. Eek!
For this reason, we only consume preserved meats sparingly, but I know the struggle of getting protein on the go. For this reason, I occasionally buy Archer turkey or beef sticks. They do not contain any added sugar, and I like that I can buy them in the small size.
Chomps is another similar grass-fed, no added sugar brand. I consider these a clean eating snack but definitely take it easy on any preserved meat.
Conclusion
Costco offers good deals on many clean eating staples including snacks. If you are able to pay a little more upfront, you can save money in the long run stocking up on high-quality snacks compared to most local grocery stores.
As always, thanks for stopping by and best of luck on your clean eating journey!
