3 snacks without added sugar, ready in 5 minutes

The point of these three is not punishment, it is a better default: something you can make faster than the delivery app arrives, that answers the craving without the sugar crash afterwards.

1. Warm cinnamon apple “dessert”

• 1 apple
• 1 tsp tahini
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 walnuts, crushed
• 1 tsp coconut flakes

Slice the apple thinly, dust with cinnamon and soften in a pan for 3–4 minutes. Top with tahini, the walnuts and coconut. A small dessert with no added sugar, ready in five minutes. Honest note: “no added sugar” does not mean no calories; size the portion to your day, not to the pan.

2. Crunchy avocado balls

• ½ avocado
• 2 tbsp cottage cheese
• 1 tsp lemon juice, a pinch of salt
• Sesame seeds for rolling

Mash the avocado, mix with the cottage cheese, lemon juice and salt, shape into small balls and roll them in sesame. Fifteen minutes in the fridge and they hold their shape. A filling snack in a naturally small portion.

3. Five-minute cucumber salad with yogurt

• 1 cucumber, sliced thin
• 3 tbsp yogurt
• 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, dill, a pinch of salt
• 1 tsp toasted sesame on top

Mix the yogurt with lemon juice, olive oil, crushed garlic and dill, fold in the cucumber, finish with sesame. For the evening when you are genuinely hungry and the alternative is something much heavier: this answers in five minutes.

If evening cravings are a nightly battle rather than an occasional visitor, the answer is rarely a better snack; it is usually the structure of the day's eating. That is a conversation worth having properly, and what a nutrition consultation is for.