Is snacking a healthy snack or a fashion trend?

Snacks are the name for foods designed to satisfy hunger between breakfast, lunch and dinner. For some, they are chips, crackers, and candy. For others, it’s dried fruit, breads and yogurt.

Then what is snacking? Essentially the same thing as snacks. However, in recent years, the popularity of small snacks has grown significantly, and now snacking can be understood as a style of food consumption. Let’s break down why this has happened, as well as find out the pros and cons of this kind of eating together with a nutritionist and fitness trainer.

trainer, nutritionist

Many people confuse snacking with gobbling. These are completely different things. The former is a healthy portioned snack, the latter is constant binge eating.

Why snacking has become a trend

We can’t say that snacking is a completely new trend. For example, fractional eating, recommended for weight loss and weight maintenance, includes small meals between the main three. And an afternoon snack back in the USSR was a favorite meal for kids. So what has changed?

According to PWC, the human need for self-care has increased dramatically in the face of the pandemic. More and more people are becoming more conscious about their food choices, thinking about what they put in their shopping cart.

A study conducted by Mondelēz International in 2020 shows that almost half of those surveyed (46%) started snacking more during the coronavirus pandemic than they did before it. Fifty-two percent of people said snacks helped take their minds off a tough year. The practice of snacking together online was proof of this.

By the way, the majority of respondents (64%) noted that they plan to continue eating snacks. Thus, quarantine has changed people’s eating habits: less and more often instead of more and less often. That’s why snackification is the current trend in the global food market. Less and less people want to buy Snickers for a snack, more and more people want to buy healthy food. For example, apple chips with no added sugar.

Why do people snack?

The answer is in the same study. 63% of respondents from Russia cannot imagine their lives without snacks. Some explain it by the fact that snacks help them control hunger and calories throughout the day, others believe that snacking is important for their mental and emotional well-being, as well as their health.

For adult respondents, snacking is a way to feel at home (71%) and an additional opportunity to socialize with a child (82%). From this we can see – snacking helps maintain family traditions. In addition, for those who have started working from home, snacking is an opportunity to get away from the routine and take a little break (69%).

Conclusion: comfort is the main reason for snacking. People like to pamper themselves, be satiated and stay energized.

Benefits of snacking

First, the source of our performance is food, which must come regularly and in sufficient quantities. By starving yourself, you run the risk of running out of energy. Due to long breaks between meals, metabolism slows down and fat stores are formed. Snacks allow you to stay in shape and not gain extra pounds.

Taisia: But this is only if the snack fits into the daily calorie allowance. When the input of energy is higher than its consumption, it all gets stored and turns into fat. It’s very easy to go over a pound, even if your snack is an apple and nuts.

Secondly, properly chosen snacks control hunger and help you not to overeat throughout the day. A small number of dense meals (1-2) stretches the stomach, which means that each time in order to satiate yourself, you will increase the portions and eat more than you should. This is not only bad for your waistline, but also for your health. You can find out how to determine your ideal portion size here.

Today the most fashionable snack is chips and potato chips, these snacks are preferred by 45% of respondents. However, people have started to pay more attention to the balance of flavor and benefits. 73% of respondents said that snacks should become healthier and contain clear and simple ingredients.

Taisia: Snacks are very necessary for children and teenagers. In addition, frequent meals are useful for people with gastrointestinal tract diseases, sometimes with diabetes mellitus. If the psyche of the thinning person is normal, he does not have an eating disorder, then he. It will increase metabolism. A snack should definitely have a beginning, an end and a size so it doesn’t feel like gobbling. A protein sandwich or cottage cheese is ideal. It is better when these are foods with maximum protein content rather than sweets.

Now for the disadvantages

The phrase “stop eating all the time, you will get better” is not taken for nothing. As our expert has already said, it’s important to know how many calories are in your meals. If the energy value of a snack is relatively large, it is unlikely that you will be able to keep within the norm. Unless, of course, you give up dinner, which is bad.

Taisia: Think of snacking as a regular small meal. You don’t need to eat like a goat pinches grass: here a piece, there a piece.

The possibility of gaining excess weight is not the only downside. Harmful snacking has a negative impact on health. For example, chips contain acrylamide – a toxic compound formed in the process of frying the product and badly affecting the kidneys, eyes, liver and central nervous system. But that doesn’t mean you can’t eat them.

Taisia: Ideally, when 70-80% of the diet consists of minimally processed foods rich in useful essential substances for our body.

The remaining percentage is food for pleasure, in another way – yummy foods. We can’t go anywhere without them. The maximum that a person can limit himself is a year, then breakdowns occur. They can lead to feelings of guilt and RPP. If you feel like eating chips, eat them. By focusing on your needs and not forbidding yourself anything, a very small amount of junk food will be enough for you to enjoy. We are happy not from the volume, but from the sensation in the mouth.

Of course, if you eat chips every day, you can not avoid problems, but if you occasionally indulge yourself, nothing terrible will happen.

The time when we sat at home and ate in peace is over. Nowadays, people are once again running somewhere, snacking on the go. Snacks can cause harm if they are not chewed properly. The larger the pieces you swallow, the longer they take to digest. As a result – pain in the gastrointestinal tract, heartburn, belching, heaviness in the stomach.

Taisia: Each person has his own norm of food that he should eat in order to digest food, maintain vital activity and body temperature. It depends on his sex, age, height, weight, activity. You need to know it. For example, if Masha’s norm is 2000 calories, of which 1300 are spent on breakfast, lunch and dinner, she has 700 for snacks. If she eats 2000 calories in three meals, she has no calorie reserve for snacks.

It is up to the individual to decide how many snacks to have depending on the calories already or planned to be eaten and goals. In general, I recommend 2-3. The first – between breakfast and lunch, the second – between lunch and dinner, the third – a glass of kefir a couple hours before bedtime if you feel hungry. More snacking is gobbledygook.