Why Snacking is Good for You -- according to WebMD

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:34 pm

I cut and pasted most of the article I got by email this morning from WebMD. I put in bold what I thought most interesting. Basically, the justification for snacking is "To hold hunger at bay and provide a constant supply of energy." If you read carefully in the article, it seems to indicate that those in France who don't snack after lunch and before dinner don't tend to feel hungry. That's what is happening with me. I don't even feel hunger anymore because it doesn't matter whether or not I'm hungry. I'm not eating!

Kathleen

The Art of Power Snacking
Try some snacks that pack a nutritional wallop for a small caloric price
By Elaine Magee, MPH
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-FeatureReviewed by Louise Chang, MDOne of the biggest myths about snacking is that it's a bad thing. The truth is that it's not snacking itself that's bad for us. It's all the junk food people like to snack on that gives snacking a bad name: chips, candy bars, french fries, soda, and so on.

In fact, if you eat until you are comfortable (not "full") at lunch, chances are you'll need a mid-afternoon snack to tide you over until dinner with plenty of energy. The secret is to snack only when you need to and to select smarter snacks.

Try these seven tips for smart snacking. Let's get going!

1. Give healthy snacks a chance.
If you try some of the healthier snack alternatives out there, you may well find that you enjoy them. This appears to be true even of college students. One college dining hall discovered that when it offered healthy snacks along with traditional ones, a significant portion of the student population actually opted for health. The dining hall, which regularly sold snack bags containing sugar-laden soda, cookies, and candy, began also offering "smart snack bags," containing baked chips, low-fat cookies, fruit cups, sunflower seeds, and water. And for every two students who bought the traditional, sugar-soaked snack bag, there was one who bought the "smart" snack alternative.

If you're one of the many people whose idea of a good snack is something crunchy and salty, know that you can have your crunch and eat smart, too. Here are a few possibilities for more healthful crunchy snack foods:

Low Fat Kettle Crisps (110 calories, 1.5 grams fat, 0 g saturated fat, and 2 grams fiber per 1 ounce.)
Baked Tostitos (110 calories, 1 gram fat, 0 g saturated fat, and 2 grams fiber per 1 ounce.)
Reduced Fat Triscuits (120 calories, 3 grams fat, 0 g saturated fat, and 3 grams fiber per 1 ounce)
Padrinos Reduced Fat Tortilla Chips (130 calories, 4 grams fat, 0.5 grams saturated fat, and 1 gram fiber per ounce.)
2. Avoid trans fats.
You've no doubt heard of the trouble with trans fats by now (they raise "bad" and lower "good" cholesterol). Well, guess which type of food they tend to lurk in? Snack foods - things like crackers, snack cakes and pies, frozen fried microwave snacks, and cookies. Anything with "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" listed among the top three ingredients on the label is suspect. Some manufacturers have done a good job of reformulating products to remove trans fats, but keep an eye out anyway.

3. Be a label detective.
Don't decide whether to buy a food based on the advertising banners on the front of the package. Check out the Nutrition Information label on the back, too. This will tell you what the company calls a portion of that food. Prepare to be amazed: What they say is a serving and what you actually eat may be completely different. The Nutrition Information label lists the calories; grams of fat, saturated fat and trans fat; and, sometimes, grams of sugar. So if the label says a serving is 1 ounce of chips and you eat 2 or 3 ounces, double or triple the nutrition information numbers.

4. Be careful with energy bars.
There are all kinds of "energy" or "power" bars being marketed under the guise of convenience and good nutrition. The truth is, these carry-anywhere bars can come in handy. But a review of many different energy bar labels reveals that choosing a bar is a matter of "picking your poison." That is, deciding what means most to you - taste, fat, fiber, protein, sugars? Generally, if bars are "low in carbs" they're also low in fiber and/or higher in fat. (Some even have quite a bit of saturated fat.) And if a bar tastes pretty good, it probably has at least 12 grams of sugars per serving.

When picking one, look for at least 3 grams of fiber (preferably 5 grams), at least 5 grams of protein (preferably 10 grams), lower amounts of fat with no saturated fat, and fewer than 20 grams of sugar.

5. Don't snack if you aren't really hungry.
Some French researchers studied the effect of two types of snacks (one high in carbohydrate and one high in protein), given a few hours after lunch, on eight lean young men. They concluded that when people who aren't hungry eat a snack -- whether it's high in carbs or protein -- they do not tend to reduce the number of calories they eat at dinner. The researchers believe this is evidence that snacking can play a role in obesity.

Are you wondering why these men weren't "hungry" a few hours after eating lunch? Researcher Didier Chapelot, MD, PhD, of the University of Paris, said that, in France, most people don't eat anything between lunch and dinner. He also noted that people who usually eat three times a day (as the men in this study regularly did), are not generally hungry until 5-7 hours after lunch.

6. Avoid high-fat snacks.
There are lots of reasons to avoid fatty snacks, including the possibility that they actually encourage overeating. Pennsylvania State University researchers found that rats who were regularly fed a high-fat diet ended up overeating high-calorie, high-fat foods, compared with rats fed a low-fat diet. The researchers suspect this has to do with a decrease in sensitivity to a hormone that normally sends a "stop eating" message to the brain.

7. Look out for TV temptations.
Convenience and fast foods high in fat and sodium made up 57% of the food advertised during the most popular TV shows, according to research by University of Illinois speech communication professor Kristen Harrison, PhD.

Harrison's research also revealed that snacking is featured in food advertising more often than all three meals combined (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). So if you watch TV, keep in mind that food companies are working to lure you into buying their snack foods and junk foods.

5 Easy Power Snacks
The perfect snack is one that packs some nutritional power but comes with a low caloric price tag.

To hold hunger at bay and provide a constant supply of energy, you want a snack that includes some carbohydrate, fiber, protein, and a little fat (preferably "smart fats" like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats). Look for at least 5 grams of protein and about 5 grams of fiber.

These five simple "power snacks" have all this and more:

Pear with cheese (1 large pear with 1 1/2 ounces of reduced-fat cheese like light Jarlsberg): 242 calories, 13 g protein, 5 g fiber, 8 g fat

A handful of almonds (3 tablespoons) and dried fruit (3 tablespoons): 250 calories, 7 g protein, 4 g fiber, 14 g fat (mostly monounsaturated).

1 ounce baked tortilla chips with 1/4 cup fat-free refried beans topped with an ounce of reduced-fat cheese and 1/8 cup tomato salsa: 250 calories, 13 g protein, 4.5 g fiber, 9 g fat.

6 ounces low-fat or nonfat light yogurt with 1/2 cup fruit, topped with 1/4 cup low-fat granola: 207 calories, 10 g protein, 5 g fiber, 2.5 g fat.

1 cup edamame with shells, or 1/2 cup edamame without shells, drizzled with 1 teaspoon olive oil and a sprinkling of black pepper: 159 calories, 10 g protein, 5 g fiber, 9 g fat (mostly monounsaturated). (Edamame, boiled green soybeans, are available in the frozen food section of many supermarkets)

apomerantz · Post by **apomerantz** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:05 am

I think the whole "hold hunger at bay" is such bs . . . I was snacking my face off, and I was a whole LOT HUNGRIER than I am now.

Why would that be?

Well, I'm guessing that my brain got accustomed to being fed every couple of hours, and when time came for the feeding, it let out signals that it was ready for the food.

Now, I'm pretty much hungry at mealtime. Maybe a little bit after a workout, but nothing I can't easily put off. I have so much better control.

p.s. thanks for posting this! I do think any article that is recommending chips as a good snack idea needs to be evaluated with skepticism. Snacking on junk food isn't especially satisfying in the end . . .I think it leads to even more munching.

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:55 pm

apomerantz,

I think that what happens is you just tune out mild hunger when it's not mealtime but only if you are accustomed to not snacking. My stomach was growling once at 11, and I didn't eat lunch that day until 2. It bothered me for perhaps 15 minutes.

Why focus on your stomach when you know you aren't going to eat? My favorite line from Reinhard's book is, "You-re pre-disapproved."

Kathleen

Post by **reinhard** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 2:42 pm

Thanks for the link!

I love that the only research they cite (the French eating patterns, not compensating for snack calories at meals) contradicts their whole argument.

And "snacking is bad" is a myth? Who exactly is propounding this myth? All I can see (except around here) are pro-snack messages. I'd love it if the no s diet had reach a broad enough audience to attain mythological status, but I'm afraid that's far off yet.

This obsession with "never getting hungry," of trying to extinguish hunger as if it were some kind of unnatural, diseased condition seems pathological to me. You don't have to "never get hungry." It isn't really possible, and it wouldn't even be a good thing if it were (can you enjoy food without hunger?). Train your hunger, as the French and EVERY other traditional eating culture does/did, including ours, until recently, by sticking to regular, discreet meals. Hunger will seem not merely bearable, but even positively good. This fantasy of "healthy snacks" is a dangerous delusion (do you really want to be a "label detective" for the rest of your life?). The odds of you sticking to healthy snacks are slim to none, further compounded by the slim to none odds of your not compensating for these healthy snacks by extra crappy meals.

No society has ever pulled off snacking as a sustainable eating pattern. Why do these gurus insist that we keep trying? I'm not one given to conspiracy theories, but I really have to wonder to what extent this whole pro-snacking line is financially motivated. Though I guess that's obvious enough to not even qualify as a conspiracy.

Reinhard

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:38 pm

Reinhard,
I think there are well-meaning people like Kelly Brownell of Yale University who are trying to figure out why there is an obesity epidemic. I remember once reading that half of solving a problem is asking the right question. Researchers are looking at what we eat and our perception of hunger rather than [i]when [/i]we eat adn [i]how often[/i] we eat. Any sort of hunger has become intolerable. I've read some hunger survey questions, and they're all about whether you went without food when you felt hungry, not how many times per day you ate. I got into that whole approach in a big way, and moving from the self-created Hunger Satisfaction Diet ("eat only after a hunger growl", which in reality meant eating after my stomach made any time of noise) into eating at mealtime was like a car crashing into a wall. We respond to what we focus on. I'll continue posting articles that I get from various sources. It should make for amusing reading for those of us who are sold on the idea of not snacking.
Kathleen

brotherjohn · Post by **brotherjohn** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 4:01 pm

Thanks for the article, Kathleen. I always look forward to your posts.

How much do you want to bet that the WebMD is fat??

Thalia · Post by **Thalia** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 4:12 pm

I love that their idea of "healthy snacks" is low-fat boxed cookies, energy bars (you need them because they're so convenient!) and baked potato chips.

FarmerHal · Post by **FarmerHal** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:40 am

Your pancreas puts out a set amount of insulin every time you eat. If your brain/pancreas is used to eating frequently (permasnacking) your levels of insulin will be high. Insulin says: "Dude! Let's eat!" The more that circulates around your body, and the more you snack, the hungrier you will feel.

Once noS'ers get on their meals with no snacking, a week goes by and the pancreas starts to reset itself. It has realized you are no longer permasnacking, and there is not such a great need to throw out so much insulin all day long.

This is great news for those of us with insulin resistance (hyperinsulinemia) and I have to remind myself also that I will be of GREAT benefit to stick with noS all the time so that I do not wear out my one and only pancreas and develop diabetes, which is a terrible disease to have.

There's a little explanation for ya.

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:22 pm

That's very helpful. Where did you read about the impact of snacking on the pancreas? I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes last summer, and my mother is concerned about my over the top S Day eating. Thanks.
Kathleen

FarmerHal · Post by **FarmerHal** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 5:02 pm

I just read about it myself since I have insulin resistance (hyperinsulinemia) and an outward sign of acanthosis nigricans (the darkening of skin around back of neck, joints which is caused by being too much insulin, it's literaly deposited in your skin in those areas.

Your pancreas is somewhat 'adjustable" from what i understand, if you adjust your eating habits to less sugars (carbs too, think junky white flour, sugar, etc) then your pancreas will too, as well as less frequent eating (stick to your meals and cut out snacking).

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:57 pm

about snacking... the more often you snack, the more you feed your habit. The more you think about food, you're feeding your habit. Get you mind off food! When counting calories, I was thinking about food all of the time. So much effort went in to food that when I lost all of the extra weight, and tried to 'go off' I was worse off mentally than I was before the diet because I was used to thinkng about food constantly and therefore I gained it all back. (Think about = go eat it) I lost it all counting fat grams and fiber too. What a roller coaster. I really believe that the less you're thinking about and actually eating, the weaker the habit gets. Most of those people that are buying into the eat often theory will gain it back... watch. I've seen it happen over and over. No S trains us to not think about food so much.

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:04 pm

I totally agree. I went to work this morning at 8 and left at 2:20. I didn't think about food at all because I've gotten accustomed to eating later and not eating in between.
Kathleen

P.S. I cannot tell you the number of diets I broke when I got close to my calorie limit for the day and then went over by a 5 calorie piece of gum or 10 calorie peppermint.

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:26 pm

I rarely snack but when I do I try to pick some healthy food.

Celery, carrots, cucumbers and also plain popcorn lately.

The other day I saw a TV show where they talk about all sorts of food related subjects and they did a bit on pop corn, comparing the different kinds, all that. Plain air popped is the best and most healthy of course.

My pop corn popper was broken so I couldn't pop the corn unfortunately. I used a tip they showed in the tv show when you don't have a popper..

What you do if you don't have a popper is you take a brown paper bag (I use a grocery bag since it has a large 'base') You put some of the kernels in there, not excessively. You close it by folding the top part and then put it in the microwave (2 minutes 20 seconds at high intensity works fine for me)

Once a month I make a few batches in the microwave, I let everything cool down in a 2nd paper grocery bag for an hour and then I transfer all the pop corn in an empty plastic bread bag, filling it up entirely. I put it in the cupboard.

Good for you, plenty of fiber in there, 3.6g in 3 cups of pop corn, not a lot of calories either. It fills you up, especially if you drink water later on. Also it's very inexpensive, for 2$ you can buy enough kernels in bulk that'll last you for several months.

Marc

Tulsa · Post by **Tulsa** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:15 pm

Web MD puts out some good stuff but they also put out some garbage.

Cornfed · Post by **Cornfed** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:50 pm

marcdesbiens wrote:I rarely snack but when I do I try to pick some healthy food.

Celery, carrots, cucumbers and also plain popcorn lately.

The other day I saw a TV show where they talk about all sorts of food related subjects and they did a bit on pop corn, comparing the different kinds, all that. Plain air popped is the best and most healthy of course.

My pop corn popper was broken so I couldn't pop the corn unfortunately. I used a tip they showed in the tv show when you don't have a popper..

What you do if you don't have a popper is you take a brown paper bag (I use a grocery bag since it has a large 'base') You put some of the kernels in there, not excessively. You close it by folding the top part and then put it in the microwave (2 minutes 20 seconds at high intensity works fine for me)

Once a month I make a few batches in the microwave, I let everything cool down in a 2nd paper grocery bag for an hour and then I transfer all the pop corn in an empty plastic bread bag, filling it up entirely. I put it in the cupboard.

Good for you, plenty of fiber in there, 3.6g in 3 cups of pop corn, not a lot of calories either. It fills you up, especially if you drink water later on. Also it's very inexpensive, for 2$ you can buy enough kernels in bulk that'll last you for several months.

Marc

That's how I make popcorn, too. I read that in Alton Brown's "I'm just here for the food" book.

I think it's 1/3 cup of kernels in a brown paper bag. I actually then fold and staple the bag closed. He goes into some pseudo-science saying what that tiny amount of metal doesn't spark in the microwave. All I can say is I've done it hundreds of times and it's never sparked.

Anyway, mine goes like 2 minutes and 15 seconds and you have popcorn.

One question I have is how do you get those popcorn seasonings....the low calorie ones in shaker containers...to adhere to unbuttered popcorn? That's my only qualm.

That aside, this makes popcorn for like free.

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Tue May 19, 2009 12:50 am

I got a very nice popcorn popper last year for about $40. I bought something like 12 pounds of popcorn at Costco. It was -- yes! -- the Popcorn Diet. In something like 1 or 2 months, I had popped and eaten about 9 pounds of popcorn. The idea was that I could eat as much popcorn as I wanted and still lose weight. Actually, the diet made me hungry because I was eating all the time.
Kathleen