There is a lot of opinion about snacking. Some people consider it to be unhealthy and increase weight. While others see it as a way to reduce overeating.
So, here is a detailed look at snacking and how it affects you.
What is snacking?
Snacking is when you eat food and drink beverages in between your regular main meals like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Snacking involves eating processed, high-calorie food like cookies, chips, and soda pop. Hence, snacking involves eating irrespective of whether the food is healthy or not.
Does snacking boost your metabolism?
A lot of people believe that eating every few hours increases their metabolism. Sadly, for them, there is no scientific evidence to back their belief.
Research has shown that there is no connection between the frequency of meal and the number of calories you burn. Hence, snacking has close to zero effect on your metabolism.
How does snacking affects your appetite and weight?
There are a lot of studies conducted on snacking’s effect on appetite and weight. It has yielded mixed results.
1. Effects on appetite :
Snacking effects on appetite and food intake isn’t universally agreed upon. Some studies show that snacks can briefly satisfy your hunger and promote feelings of a complete meal.
However, their calories level has a different effect on people. Some people consume more food and more calories, while others don’t experience any change.
Hence, it is safe to assume that snacking’s effect on appetite depends upon the individual and the type of snack he prefers.
2. Effects on weight :
The majority of the studies show that snacking does not affect your weight. The discrepancy is due to the type of food consumed and the metabolism of the person.
For example, most people eat snacks which have high-fat content and does little to increase weight.
However, if their metabolism is weak, they would consume less food than they would have, and this would decrease their weight.
On the other hand, if their metabolism works fine, they would eat as much as before. Again, snacking’s effect on weight vary by individual and the time of day.
3. Snacking Effects on blood sugar?
It is a widely believed concept that you have to eat frequently to maintain a stable blood sugar level. However, this isn’t true for everyone.
For example, one study concluded that eating less food resulted in lower fasting blood sugar levels, better insulin sensitivity, and greater weight loss than on average.
While other studies indicated, there is no difference in blood sugar level in people who consume meals plus snacks.
The result again comes down to the type of snack and the amount consumed while measuring blood sugar levels.
Studies suggest people should eat Lower-carb, higher-fiber snacks as they have a favorable effect on blood sugar and insulin levels. Or eat snacks with high protein level to reduce blood sugar level.
Hence, you should keep an eye on what you eat in case you have a blood sugar problem.
4. Snacking can prevent overeating!
One of the benefits of snacking is that it helps people avoid over-eating. For example, if you had a hectic schedule which didn’t allow you to eat regularly.
More often than not, you will end up eating more calories than you need. This will disrupt your daily cycle and cause problems.
If you face such issues on a regular basis where your main meals are spaced very far. Then you should consider eating healthy snacks rather than waiting for your meal.
Some tips for healthy snacking :
As we can see snacking effect varies on what you eat. Hence, here are few guidelines to follow for a healthy snack:
• Don’t eat snacks that provide more than 200 calories and eat at least 10 grams of protein to help you stay full until your next meal.
• The frequency of snacks depends on your meals time and your activity level. If you are active with spaced mealtime, then eat 2-3 times a day. Otherwise eating snacks once a day is fine
• Always keep portable snacks which you can eat while doing errands or traveling.
• Don’t eat processed, high-sugar snacks as you would feel hungry after an hour or two. Moreover, they are unhealthy.
Conclusion :
It is really hard to say something universal about snacking. As it can prevent many people from overeating. While other people eat too much and it disrupts their main meal.
Hence, if you eat healthy snacks once or twice a day, then you wouldn’t face any problem. Otherwise, it can all come crashing down.