Linda Funk: Hi! I am Linda Funk and I'm the Executive Director of The Soyfoods Council. Today we're going to talk about the top three ways to start including soy into your snacking routine. We all snack so why not put some really healthy snacks into that daily routine.

So let's start with the Edamame. Edamame has become the darling of the soybean industry. Everybody loves it. And guess what? It's a soybean. A lot of people don't realize that it is an actual soybean so it's packed with all of that soy protein that you are looking for.

For this, we're looking at the in-the-pod Edamame and what you do is take the bag, either put it in the microwave or put it on top of the range and steam it. Take it off and serve it, sprinkle a little salt over if you want and then all you do is pop open the pod and take the beans out and eat them. Don't eat the pod; it's a little too fibrous. Kids love it; it's like playing with food. So give that a try the next time your child is really hungry for something.

Then if you're really craving that salty, crunchy type food, you might want to take a look at all of the varieties of the soy crisps that are out there and some soy crackers too. Again, what's great about this is that 17 crisps are of serving size and in that serving is a 110 Calories and 5 grams of soy protein. So it's really a nice way to start adding some healthy protein into your snacking routine.

And then of course there is the Soy Nuts. Soy nuts are great because they come in lots and lots of flavors and are in every supermarket across the US. They are in plain, they are in barbeque, they come in chocolate and we know that once something is covered with chocolate it really is main stream.

But, again, what's so great about it is that for a serving size of quarter of a cup, just a quarter of a cup has 10 grams of soy protein in it. So, again, we know that once you start eating protein and including protein in your diet it really makes you feel full longer. So this is a great way to get between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner and not really add a lot of those extra empty calories to your diet.

But for more information, go to our website thesoyfoodscouncil.

com where there are lots of recipes and latest research information on soy protein.