A healthy snack in Pakistan is one you can buy on an ordinary street for ordinary money and eat without reading a label: a paper cone of bhuna chana, a boiled egg, a kinnow, a bowl of dahi. The imported protein bar and the "digestive" biscuit are neither, whatever the packet says. Here are fifteen snacks that pass, what 100 g of each gives you, what they cost in late 2026 where a price could actually be found, and six so-called healthy snacks that fail.
A note on the figures. Nutrition values are from the USDA food database and are rounded; the pouch figures are our own typical values. Prices are from published 2026 retail and wholesale lists and Karachi's official rate notifications, and they move with the season and the city, so treat them as the order of magnitude, not a quote. Where no reliable Pakistani price was published, the table says so rather than guessing.
Cheap and everywhere
1. Bhuna chana. Roasted black chickpeas from the cart or the kiryana shop: about 360 kcal, 19 g of protein and 10 g of fibre per 100 g, and a 50 g cone keeps you full until dinner. Raw chana was fixed at Rs 190 to 295 a kilo in Karachi's official rate list; roasted sells for more, but still less per gram of protein than anything else on this page. Salted versions exist; ask for plain.
2. Moongphali in the shell. Winter's street snack, sold warm by the paper bag from November. Around 570 kcal and 26 g of protein per 100 g, so a small handful is a meal's worth of energy, which is the point on a cold evening and the thing to remember in July. In-shell peanuts wholesale at Rs 250 to 340 a kilo; shelled raw peanuts retail at Rs 800 to 1,300.
3. A boiled egg. About 78 kcal and 6 g of protein each, nothing added, and it travels. A dozen cost Rs 320 to 350 in the big cities through 2026, with winter spikes towards Rs 480, which still makes one egg the cheapest complete protein you can hold in your hand.
4. Plain dahi. Whole-milk yogurt is about 60 kcal and 3.5 g of protein per 100 g, with the calcium and the live cultures that make it a real food rather than a dessert. Buy it unsweetened from the dairy shop and add fruit yourself; the flavoured cups on the supermarket shelf are in the "fails" list below.
5. A banana. Available all year from Sindh, about 90 kcal and 2.6 g of fibre each, in its own wrapper. The cheapest fruit on most carts in most months; the per-dozen price changes too often to print.
6. The fruit in season. Kinnow and amrood from November to February, Chaunsa and Sindhri from June to August, strawberries from Chiniot in a short window from February. Fruit is cheapest in its own season and best then too: a kinnow is about 50 kcal with a day's vitamin C, an amrood carries more vitamin C per 100 g than almost any fruit grown here. Our guides to amrood and Chaunsa have the seasons and this year's prices.
7. Popcorn you pop yourself. Air-popped or with a teaspoon of oil in a covered pan: about 390 kcal and 15 g of fibre per 100 g, and 100 g of popcorn is a very large bowl. Kernels cost about Rs 100 for 250 g loose or Rs 190 for a 200 g branded pouch, which works out at a few rupees a bowl. Microwave bags and the cinema bucket, with their oil and sugar, do not count.
8. Bhutta. Roasted corn from the cart, rubbed with lemon and salt: about 100 kcal per cob, fibre, and nothing else. Seasonal and cheap; the price is whatever the man with the coals says.
From the dry-fruit shop
9. Almonds. About 580 kcal, 21 g of protein and 12 g of fibre per 100 g, so ten almonds is the serving, not a bowl. Mostly imported and priced accordingly: Rs 850 a kilo for the Australian grade up to Rs 2,500 to 3,200 for American and Mamra almonds in Karachi this year.
10. Walnuts. Around 650 kcal and 15 g of protein per 100 g, with the omega-3 fats the other nuts lack. In-shell walnuts list at Rs 900 to 1,200 a kilo and shelled kernels at Rs 2,400 to 2,800, so buy them in the shell and crack them yourself.
11. Khajoor. Dates are about 280 kcal and 8 g of fibre per 100 g, and the sugar in them is the fruit's own. Pakistan grows them: Aseel from Khairpur is the everyday date, wholesaling at around Rs 360 a kilo in 2025, with Ajwa and Mazafati imported at several times that. Three dates and a glass of water is a snack that has worked for a long time.
12. Makhana. Puffed lotus seed, about 350 kcal, 9 g of protein and 7 g of fibre per 100 g, and so light that 30 g is a large bowl. Dry-roast it in a pan with a pinch of salt. It is imported, and no Pakistani retailer published a per-kilo price we could stand behind, so check the shelf; it is not cheap, but the serving is small.
Made in ten minutes
13. Chana chaat. Boiled chana with onion, tomato, green chilli and lemon: protein, fibre and a whole vegetable in a bowl for the price of a cup of dried chana. Skip the fried papri and the sweet chutney and it stays honest.
14. Sattu. Roasted chana flour stirred into cold water with salt and lemon, the old Punjabi drink: about 400 kcal and 20 g of protein per 100 g of flour, and a glass uses two spoonfuls. The cheapest protein drink in the country and nobody markets it.
From a pouch
15. Freeze-dried fruit. Real fruit with the water removed and nothing added, which is what we make. Per 100 g the typical values run from 310 to 352 kcal with 9 to 16 g of fibre, and the vitamin C in a pouch of guava is 690 mg per 100 g, because the fruit is never heated. It is more expensive per piece of fruit than the cart, and cheaper per 100 g than almonds: a 50 g pouch of apple crisps is Rs 550, and the 100 g five-fruit mix is Rs 1,300. The honest use is the lunch box, the desk drawer and the months when the fruit is out of season, not a replacement for the kinnow on the cart in January. Treat 25 g as one piece of fruit.
Side by side
| Snack | Per 100 g, approximately | 2026 price, where published |
|---|---|---|
| Bhuna chana | 360 kcal, 19 g protein, 10 g fibre | raw chana Rs 190–295/kg (Karachi official list) |
| Peanuts | 570 kcal, 26 g protein | Rs 250–340/kg in shell wholesale; Rs 800–1,300 shelled retail |
| Boiled egg | 155 kcal, 13 g protein (one egg: 78 kcal, 6 g) | Rs 320–350 a dozen, up to Rs 480 in winter |
| Plain dahi | 60 kcal, 3.5 g protein | not published; dairy-shop price |
| Banana | 90 kcal, 2.6 g fibre | not published; by the dozen on the cart |
| Kinnow, amrood, mango | 50–70 kcal, vitamin C | see the fruit guides |
| Popcorn, home-popped | 390 kcal, 15 g fibre | kernels about Rs 100 per 250 g |
| Almonds | 580 kcal, 21 g protein, 12 g fibre | Rs 850–3,200/kg |
| Walnuts | 650 kcal, 15 g protein | Rs 900–1,200/kg in shell; Rs 2,400–2,800 shelled |
| Dates (Aseel) | 280 kcal, 8 g fibre | about Rs 360/kg wholesale (2025) |
| Makhana | 350 kcal, 9 g protein, 7 g fibre | no reliable Pakistani price found |
| Freeze-dried fruit (ours) | 310–352 kcal, 9–16 g fibre, typical values | 50 g from Rs 550; 100 g mix Rs 1,300 |
Six snacks that only look healthy
- Digestive and "wheat" biscuits. Refined flour, sugar and palm oil with a wholesome name. A biscuit, not a snack with a benefit.
- Fried banana chips. About 520 kcal and 34 g of fat per 100 g, a third of the weight being the oil they were fried in. How to make them without the oil is its own article.
- Sugared dried mango and "dried fruit" from the jar. Dehydrated with heat, then rolled in sugar or oil. Read the pouch: if the ingredients list has two items, one of them is sugar.
- Flavoured yogurt cups. The fruit is syrup and the sugar can be as much as a soft drink. Buy plain dahi and cut a banana into it.
- Juice boxes and "fruit drinks". Sugar water with a picture of fruit on it. A kinnow is a snack; kinnow juice from a carton is dessert.
- Imported granola and protein bars. Rs 300 to 600 for 40 g of oats, syrup and a protein powder. Two boiled eggs cost a tenth of that.
What to actually do
Keep three of the cheap ones in the house at all times, bhuna chana, eggs and whatever fruit is in season, and you have a snack for every hour. Buy nuts by the small bag and count them. Use the pouch for the lunch box, the desk and the off-season; all our pouches come in 50 g, 100 g, 250 g and 500 g, delivered for Rs 299 to any city in Pakistan, free over Rs 4,000, with Cash on Delivery, and same-day in Lahore before 2pm.
Sources: nutrition from the USDA food database and our own typical values; dry-fruit prices from 2026 Karachi and Lahore retail lists (Dry Fruits Mart, Khan Dry Fruit); chana from the Karachi Commissioner's rate notification reported by ARY News; eggs from Expatistan 2026 estimates and winter reports; dates from Tridge; popcorn kernels from Foodpanda listings.
