Are snacking & mini-meals a healthy habit?
There is a lot of confusion about whether 3 square meals or 5-6 mini-meals are better for your health. Add to that American’s increasing affinity for snack foods, the availability and variety of highly palatable, highly processed foods and the “health-halo” used to advertise natural/organic/plant-based/gluten-free/fat-free/sugar-free options and we are all left scratching our heads…and reaching for a snack.
A recent CNN article was the inspiration behind this blog, but as kids and teachers head back to school and schedules get busier, I get a lot of questions about healthy snacks.
In this post I will talk about the pros and cons of snacking and mini-meals as compared to 3 meals each day.
The CNN article talks about the origins of America’s snack ‘habit’ so I don’t need to repeat that.
I’ll talk about when a snack would be a good choice and what to choose.
We’ll finish with how to break the habit.
Snacking is a modern practice.
Our body is not designed to snack and we did not evolve with the abundance of food we have today or the need to eat throughout the day. When you behave in a way that is inconsistent with human biology the outcome is never good.
Our body has the ability to go long periods without food. A healthy person can go 12-14 hours easily and most even longer with out eating. This is thanks to our liver and other organs and a process called metabolic flexibility. This means your body is able to switch between using energy from food recently eaten (carbohydrates) to stored energy (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) to fuel bodily processes and activities.
I find the bank account analogy is helpful to understand this process. Food eaten is energy deposited into the bank. It goes first to your checking account (blood) for immediate use fueling your bodily processes and activity. Extra food beyond what is immediately needed is stored in your tiered-savings account (muscle, liver, fat) as over-draft protection when you run out of fuel in checking.
When we didn’t have snacks stashed in our bag, glove box, pantry or easily available at the drive thru, these savings accounts provided the energy needed until the next meal.
This is where the analogy hit’s today’s health crisis.
When you keep depositing into the checking, overflowing to savings you hit the limit for taxable income. You pay the tax with your health. Abundance of stored energy causes blood sugar issues, insulin resistance, production and storage of triglycerides (fats) around your organs, in your blood vessels and more.
A lifestyle of continuous eating throughout the day and night makes the body less efficient at using up what is stored. This makes that metabolic shift uncomfortable instead of seamless, as it’s designed to be. That discomfort can feel like hunger but it’s really due to your blood sugar level dropping and your body being unable to shift to stored energy for fuel. This contributes to further insulin resistance/diabetes, elevated triglycerides and heart disease.
When might mini-meals be GOOD for you?
If you are unable to eat sufficient quantities of food at meals to meet your nutritional needs, eating nutrient-dense meals more frequently would help meet those needs.
This applies to:
small children
teens that are active and in periods of rapid growth and development
high-level athletes
pregnant or nursing women
And check that phrase, ‘nutrient-dense meals.’ This does not mean eating more of those highly palatable, highly processed packaged snack items or hitting the drive thru. Those items, I struggle to even call them ‘food,’ are devoid of the nutrients the above populations need.
What would be a GOOD mini-meal or snack for these populations?
These groups are all in periods of growth or high-energy demands on their body and require a balance of complex carbohydrates, clean protein and healthy fats. This can look like:
A sandwich with minimally-processed bread, nitrate-free meat, leafy greens and avocado or hummus.
Nuts and whole fruit.
Smoothie with clean protein from protein powder, organic Greek yogurt, or seeds like chia or flax, fruit, greens and nut butter.
A slice of low-sugar banana bread spread with cream cheese or nut butter.
Vegetables with hummus or guacamole and nitrate-free jerky.
If you are NOT in the above populations it’s time to ditch your snack habit and work toward eating 2-3 balanced, nutrient-dense meals each day. The exact number and composition of those meals depends on your personal health history and goals but we can ALL benefit from a less-processed, anti-inflammatory diet. See my post on Anti-Inflammatory eating for more info.
Here are some tips on how to make the switch to snack-free eating.
FIRST - plan your meals. Ensure you have nutrient-dense, whole-food based meals to keep you satisfied. This is not the time to ‘eat light.’ Prioritize protein and aim for 30+ grams per meal as studies prove time and again that protein promotes satiety.
Remove the temptation. Eliminate snack foods from your home or confine them to a box labeled ‘kid’s snacks’ and only buy individual portion packages. This way they are more expensive so you are less likely to eat them and if you do, it’s a smaller portion than a party-sized bag. If you are tempted by fast food on your regular route home, go a different way.
Hydrate. We often confuse hunger for thirst thinking we are hungry when actually thirsty. Drink water throughout the day to avoid those mixed signals. See my post on hydration for more information.
MOVE! This can mean actual movement, go for a walk or exercise and get out of the kitchen or away from the food.
Finally, the midnight munchies. This can be the hardest snack habit to break. Start by closing the kitchen after dinner - clean counters, cabinets and pantry closed, lights off. Brushing your teeth makes you less likely to put anything else in your mouth. Move away from the kitchen when watching TV or reading.
I hope you found this information useful and it inspired you to examine your personal snacking or eating habits.
Please comment or email me with any questions.
If you want personal help breaking your snack habit, transitioning your family to a more balanced eating approach or customizing a nutrition plan for someone in the high-energy demand population,
send me an email: jen@simplyfitandfresh.com.