Snacking is a habit for many people. Eating small bites of foods between meals, while at our desk at work or in the car while on the go is a norm.  While snacking is not advisable in general, if you must snack, nutrient dense foods like fresh veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds, hard boiled eggs, nut butters, and hummus make for good options as do cheese sticks, fruit dried without added sugars and plain Greek yogurt.  Ideally however, changing habits and stopping snacking all together should be the goal.   The following explains why.

When we eat our pancreas creates the hormone Insulin. Food is broken down by enzymes in our gut and eventually ends up as molecules in our bloodstream. Carbohydrates are broken down into sugars and Fats are broken down into fatty acids, both of which our cells store for later use as energy. If we eat in excess of the energy we need insulin causes us to store that excess as fat. It not only promotes the creation of fat but it works to keep that fat stored fat in our cells. So long as we continue to eat, our pancreas continues to produce insulin.  So as we snack, we are ensuring a full supply of insulin is being pumped through our blood.

Between meals, if we do not snack, insulin levels will decrease, and the pancreas has time to produce another hormone called Glucagon.  Glucagon does pretty much the exact opposite of insulin. It releases stored sugars and fats from our cells so that they can be used as energy. This in part, is one of the the driving ideas behind intermittent fasting.

If you’re looking for a new goal, maybe it doesn’t have to be as drastic as intermittent fasting (even if it is all the rage these days)? Perhaps it should just be to put an end to snacking between meals?  Snacking is not advisable.