Is snacking a nutritional friend or foe? It depends

About Nutrition

Much has been made of a recent research study showing that the average American gets nearly a quarter of their daily calories from snacks—roughly the equivalent of one extra meal each day—and that, in many cases, those snacks are a major source of added sugar. The rise of the snacking trend has been around for a while, but is this something we should be concerned about?

Here’s one thing that’s certain: If snacks provide a significant portion of your daily nutritional needs, what you eat when you eat has a greater impact on the overall quality of your diet than if you snack infrequently. If you eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and dairy or equivalent products, you are adding important nutrients. (Note that legumes include beans and lentils, but not soy, as I said in my recent lean protein column. Soy is a legume.)

If most of your snacks are highly processed, which usually means high in fat, sugar, and sodium and low in fiber and nutrients, then you’re missing out on nutrition. In the short term, this may mean feeling less than your best. In the long term, this could contribute to poor health.

Another snacking pitfall is snacking for reasons other than hunger. When someone tells me they feel like they need to snack less, it’s not because they’ve planned (or at least thought about) snacking halfway between meals. It’s usually because their snacking feels pointless, random, and possibly compulsive.

If you find yourself eating more to get something done, perhaps snacking when you’re bored, procrastinating, or always snacking during screen time, then noticing these patterns and looking for non-food activities to feed those needs is a place to to start. If you find yourself grazing your pantry or office vending machine when you’re stressed, sad, or anxious, you’ve entered emotional eating territory. Yes, food probably makes you feel better temporarily, or you wouldn’t turn to food, but can you identify other actions that might bring deeper relief?

On the other hand, if you legitimately need snacks to bridge the hunger gap between meals, consider whether these snacks could use a nutritional boost.

A healthy, balanced snack that provides important nutrients as well as staying power will generally include fiber-rich carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats. Examples include plain yogurt or cottage cheese with berries, an apple with nuts or nut butter, hummus with raw vegetables, or whole-wheat crackers with cheese. If you have leftovers from last night’s dinner that aren’t enough to eat, you can also turn that into a snack.

So what is the right amount of food for a snack? This generally depends on the weather. If you eat lunch at noon and dinner at 7 pm, that’s a big gap. If you’re hungry for a snack around 3 or 4 p.m., it will need to be a little bigger, maybe half the size of a meal to get you through dinner. However, if you feel hunger coming on when you’re missing a meal, it’s wiser to have a small snack just to stave off the sharp edge of hunger. The goal is to be mildly hungry rather than ravenously when you sit down to eat.

The bottom line is that snacks are neither good nor bad. It might be worth taking a nuanced look at why you’re snacking and what you’re snacking on, then use that information to see if you need to change your snacking habits.