Snacks

What are snacks?

Snacks are usually little nibbly foods that are eaten between main meals. They are often characterised by being quick to prepare/eat, convenient and portable, so can be eaten “on the go”.

Why do we snack?

There are many reasons people snack.  Just some of these reasons include:

• Hunger – you feel hungry and there is a snack available.
• Social pressure – people around you are eating/offering you snacks, so you join in.
• Habit – you’ve always had a biscuit with your tea, or always had popcorn at the movies etc.
• Boredom – there is nothing else to do, so you may as well grab a bite to eat.
• Food insecurity – you are not sure when the next meal is, so best to grab a bite now while you can.

The pros and cons of snacking

It is over simplistic to just say things like “snacks are good/snacks are bad”.  Like with most things, there are both pros and cons to them.  I’m going to treat you like an adult and try to lay these out and let you figure out if snacks are helping you or not.

Pros

• Can give a short term boost in energy if really needed.
• Can prevent you getting really hungry and overeating at your next main meal.
• Depending on the snack, it can provide extra nutrients (vitamins, minerals etc) if you are deficient.
• They can help people increase their food intake if that is their goal (eg – they are ill, live with an eating disorder or need to gain weight).

Cons

• Extra calories can lead to unwanted weight gain.
• Eating an unbalanced, unhealthy snack can cause people to miss a balanced, healthy main meal.
• Developing a taste for ultra processed foods can cause people to crave more of them.
• Many ultra processed snacks give a short term boost in energy, followed by a predictable slump in energy again.

How to snack less

In my experience, many people who tell themselves they “need a snack”, actually need to sort out their main meals.

If someone can’t go more than a few hours without needing food to keep them going, their main meals are not doing a very good job!

So here are few ideas you might try to reduce your dependence on snacks:

• Make sure your main meals follow the Healthy Eating Plate guidelines.  
• Eat bigger main meals.  If your healthy main meals are leaving you hungry, maybe eating larger portions of healthy food is better.
• Change your main meal times (where possible).  If there are huge gaps between your main, healthy meals, see if you can space them a bit better.
• Pin down the real reason you are snacking.  As covered above, hunger is only one reason people eat snacks.  If you are snacking for some other reason, pinpoint that reason and do something about it.

Choosing better snacks

Once you have cut back on unnecessary snacks, you can then make the remaining ones better suit your needs.

• At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, the healthiest snacks are those that resemble the Healthy Eating Plate.  So choose snacks that include fruit, veg, healthy protein and whole grains/fibre.  These will fill you up the best and keep you going for the longest.
• Make sure the snack actually ticks the right boxes for you.  If you are honestly after something sweet, fruit will do a much better job than something like nuts.  But if you want something to make you feel fuller for longer, something with protein and fibre will be better.
• Plan in advance.  I’m not going to lie to you, healthy, nutritious snacks are usually less convenient than something ultra processed in a packet.  So you will likely need to plan them in advance to be ready.

Conclusion

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Why do you think you need a snack?
• Do you actually need a snack?
• How can you change things to reduce your need for a snack?
• How can you choose a healthier snack?