There’s no such thing as a healthy snack

MAYBE it is our rushed food culture coupled with misguided government advice that encourages snacking between meals but it is notable snacking alone contributes 25 per cent of our energy consumption and contributes to the expansion of our waistlines.

As food companies push a combination of cheap, tasty, highly-processed food and snacks, often with misleading healthy labels, we have gained weight and increased our risk of type 2 diabetes. It’s not just that snacking results in eating more than we need. Certain foods, such as bread or chocolate, can be much less healthy when eaten on an empty stomach as a ‘snack’.

A slice of toast with your meal or chocolate afterwards carry the same number of calories as when eaten as a mid-morning or late-night snack. But the blood sugar spikes and dips will be much greater when the food or drink are taken as a stand-alone snack, resulting in greater hunger levels in the next three or four hours which in turn make you more likely to choose sugary foods.

Our bodies and gut microbes appreciate time between meals when they can rest from digestion.