All too often I see people in consultations who prevent themselves from having snacks for fear of “eating too much”. So I’ve decided to bring snacks to the forefront today to better understand the benefits of including them. If, like some of my clients, you’ve banished them from your diet, here’s the article that might just reconcile you with them.
Why have snacks?
One of the seemingly trivial reasons for snacking is to quell hunger. In fact, many people prevent themselves from snacking and force themselves to make do with meals. As a result, they arrive at meals hungry, and tend to eat very quickly and in larger portions. On average, the brain needs about 20 minutes to determine whether we’ve eaten enough. So, if I eat more slowly, I’ll tend to consume a portion more suited to my needs, since I’ll have given my body time to send my satiety signals… which is much easier when I’m starting to feel hungry than when my stomach is screaming. So, for all those who dread snacks, they can actually help us better manage our portions and what we eat in our day. Indeed, when our hunger level is lower, it’s easier to make sensible choices or to take the time to take a few extra steps to put together something more balanced… but when we’re hungry, we generally go with what’s available without much preparation (restaurants, chips, cookies, etc.) without even thinking about combining them with other more nutritious and sustaining foods.
We want to avoid long periods without eating, and it’s actually normal to start feeling hungry again 3 to 4 hours after a meal. If the periods between meals are therefore longer, you’d probably benefit from adding snacks to your diet. I can already hear some people saying: “But I’m not hungry even if my meals are spaced every 6 to 8 hours! And it may be that you don’t “feel” hungry. If that’s your case, I’d ask myself:
- Are you in a state of mind that allows you to pay attention to your hunger signals? When we’re busy completing tasks, listening to a program or concentrating on something else, it can sometimes be difficult to feel our hunger signals, since we’re more focused on the task than on how our body is feeling.
- Have you just worked out? Sport can have the effect of suppressing hunger, especially after high-intensity training. After a while, however, the hunger signals return..
- Do you usually feel your hunger and satiety signals? Our body is a super-intelligent machine. If you’ve learned to ignore them in the past, your body may have realized that there was no point in sending them, since it was wasting energy sending signals that weren’t being answered anyway. So you may now be feeling your hunger much later, and possibly more in the form of weakness, reduced energy or even the presence of food rage.
If you ever find that your hunger and satiety signals aren’t quite as sharp as they used to be, don’t panic, they can happily be restored. With more frequent and adequate intakes, the body’s signals usually start to return better and better. What a beautiful machine! If you’re having trouble with this process, a follow-up with a nutritionist could be very useful.
Snacks can also help us meet our needs. By consuming only 3 meals (or even less for some), it’s likely that your nutritional needs aren’t being met, especially if you train a lot. Unmet needs can lead to food cravings, low energy levels, more frequent injuries, a weakened immune system, deficiencies, reduced muscle mass and so on. All in all, this isn’t meant to scare you, but rather to highlight all the great things that simple snacks can do for you.
But what do we eat for a snack?
It really depends on what our body needs. In fact, if I’m hungry or arrive at the next meal too hungry, we’d like to make sure we have some protein in our snack. Protein foods will support you and satisfy your hunger. What’s more, they’ll feed your muscles if you’re interested in building or maintaining muscle mass. If your energy level is low, we’d like to see carbohydrates (fruit, crackers, soft bars, muffins, etc.) to provide you with energy. In fact, if you want an energy boost before your next workout, you can try this month’s recipe for banana-chocolate-coffee bread to fill up on carbohydrates. So, my snack doesn’t have to contain carbs and protein, but if I want it to be complete, energizing and supportive, we’d like to see that combination. Here are a few examples of complete snacks (protein + carbohydrates):
- Cheese + Crackers
- Cheese + Fruit
- Greek yogurt + Granola
- Greek yogurt + Fruit
- TVP (textured vegetable protein) + Regular yogurt
- Protein Granola + Regular Yogurt
- Tuna + crackers
- Soy nuts + Fruit
- Protein dip (plain Greek yogurt with dipping spices, hummus, tofu dip) + Crackers/Vegetables
- Pea milk/soy + Homemade muffin
- TVP (textured vegetable protein) muffin
- Tender protein bar (with carbohydrates)
- Mixed nuts with edamame + dried fruit
- Peanut butter powder dip + fruit
- Cottage cheese + fruit
- Etc.
If you’re wondering whether you personally need snacks and what changes you should make to your diet, don’t hesitate to come and see me so we can look at it all together.
On that note, long live snacks!
Ny : Joanie Séguin, Dt. P.
Nutritionnist, Clinique Hexa Physio
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