Olives: The Healthy Snack Hiding in Your Fridge
Reach past the crisps. A bowl of olives is one of the better savoury snacks you can put out — whole food, good fats, real flavour. With one honest caveat about salt.
As a thing to nibble with a drink, the olive beats almost everything in the snack aisle. It is a whole, minimally processed fruit, rich in the same monounsaturated fat as its oil, with fibre and antioxidants — not a fried, salted, ultra-processed crisp.
Olives are salty and calorie-dense — cured in brine and mostly fat — so “healthier than crisps” is not “eat a whole jar.” A small bowl, a rinse to knock back the brine if you are watching salt, and you have a snack that is genuinely good for you and tastes far more interesting. (The full nutrition picture is in are olives high in salt.)
Dress them up: warm a bowl with citrus peel, garlic and herbs (here’s how to marinate olives) and a humble jar becomes the best thing on the table.