Today I want to talk about snacking. Watch or read along to explore different perspectives on snacking:

Is snacking bad?

As I talk with patients about their eating habits I often hear the idea that snacking is bad and something to be avoided. But, like most things in the nutrition world, it’s not just black and white, not just good or bad. So let’s take a deeper look.

When might snacking be helpful?

Work schedules and the general pace of life can often keep people from eating regularly spaced meals throughout the day. I frequently have patients tell me they eat lunch around noon and dinner around 7pm. That’s a 7 hour gap between meals!

It’s not unreasonable for your body to be asking you for some kind of nourishment every 3-5 hours. So in a situation like this a snack can be a huge help in bridging the gap between meals. And bridging that gap helps you arrive at dinner time more capable to make intentional food choices since your body isn’t feeling so deprived.

So, in this case, snacking is a huge win.

When might snacking be unhelpful?

This one of the exact topics that I spend time talking through with my patients in session and it’s so hard to address it in a general way because I always like to take the full picture of someone’s situation into account, but I would say that for the most part snacking that is happening mindlessly is not helpful.

When you are mindless with snacking (or any eating):

1) you aren’t able to enjoy the food as much

2) you aren’t in touch with what you body is really wanting or needing in that moment

You’re giving it food when it might really be needing something else.

So, let’s not villainize snacking – it can be great and it’s even better when you’ve tuned in to your body and you’re giving it food when it’s asking for food.

If learning to listen to your body is new or feeling difficult I’ve love to help you along on your journey. You can reach out to me here.