We surely remember when we were children and after school one of the first things we did was run to get a snack, often a sandwich that gave us the energy to play sports, play for a while or even do our homework and, above all, which allowed us to have dinner. This shouldn’t change even though we are no longer children, because we still need energy to function.
However, more than 60% of adults in Spain do not snack because 40% of them consider that snacks are reserved for children and adolescents, 12% do not do it to avoid gaining weight and 72% consider that it is only a supplement. people who did not eat well at midday, according to the III Lidl-5 per day study on snacking habits in Spain. But while you should avoid snacking between meals, there are many benefits to a healthy snack.
Why is snacking important?
Although it all depends on the structure of the rest of the meals we eat throughout the day, snacking can be a good time to complete the total recommended daily ration, but not to increase it.
According to the Spanish Agency for Food and Nutritional Safety (AESAN), it is important to get the energy we need from the different daily meals. So, 25% must come from breakfast (15% if we have a light breakfast and the remaining 10% from lunch mid-morning), 35% from the midday meal, 10% from the snack and the remaining 30% dinner.
What happens if we skip any of these meals and, in particular, the snack? According to the ANIBES scientific study, people suffering from abdominal obesity consume more energy at lunch and less at mid-morning and snack time than those without abdominal obesity. According to the study results, the importance of mid-morning and snacks, provided their content is adequate – 15% of the total daily intake – is notable for several reasons.
First, because it is a good time to introduce healthy foods, such as dairy products, fruits and vegetables, which help us acquire an adequate intake of nutrients. Also because snacking can affect the next intake and, therefore, leads us to consume less food at dinner, an aspect that experts associate with a lower risk of suffering from obesity and other metabolic consequences.
Skipping a mid-afternoon snack will likely cause us to arrive at dinner hungry, which can lead to unhealthy food choices. If we let too many hours pass between meals, our metabolism will slow down, our blood sugar will drop, and when we finally eat, we will be so hungry that it will be difficult to make good decisions and we run the risk of overeating.
Plus, we’ll likely crave carb-rich foods in the evening, rather than a salad, which will do little or nothing to help us when we’re starving. The snack therefore helps us avoid snacking before dinner, to digest better if we have slow digestion and to calm the digestive system, avoiding heaviness in the stomach at night. It also allows us to regulate our appetite and avoid losing control of our diet: snacking allows us to eat lighter in the evening because we have already eaten something a few hours before. And a light dinner leads to better digestion.
What a healthy snack should look like
Preparing a healthy snack is as important, if not more so, than not skipping that mid-afternoon meal if necessary. However, the rush and little attention the snack receives often makes it an unhealthy snack and not recommended at all. To reverse this situation, one must limit or eliminate unhealthy foods and prioritize healthy foods, in addition to doing so about three hours before dinner.
If snacks make up 15% of our daily nutritional intake, that doesn’t mean we can eat everything. It is important that we take advantage of this short gastronomic break to supplement the nutritional intake that we sometimes neglect in the rest of the meals and that we take the opportunity to incorporate a small food intake, and not a complete meal. What does this mean? The first step is, if we follow the guide Small changes to eat betterprepared by the Health Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia, incorporates more fruit.
What can we do to avoid succumbing to the typical vending machine chocolate bar? A healthy and balanced snack will provide us with the vitamins, minerals and trace elements necessary to last until the end of the day and avoid peaks of fatigue. By consuming a snack balanced, we offer our body the appropriate carbohydrates which allow us to recover energy for several hours and remain efficient.
Snack time can be a good time to eat vegetables, like sliced tomatoes with arugula. As for bread, which is usually one of the protagonists of many of our snacks, it is better to opt for the whole grain version.
And, to drink, no juice or any other sugary drink. Water is the best choice and the drink par excellence in a healthy snack, since it is the only one that provides us with adequate hydration.
Other alternatives to the sandwich and fresh fruit are nuts, natural yogurt or a little cheese. If we eat cheese we must keep in mind that it represents half of the recommended two daily dairy products, so we must be careful not to accumulate more than two per day. Another option is to have a serving of fruit with yogurt and tea or coffee.
You should think of the snack as a mini-breakfast in which you can include a hot drink, a fruit, a dairy product and starchy foods in the form of wholemeal bread or crackers. Even if the snack will depend on our tastes and our energy expenditure, we must avoid foods rich in added sugars, salt and fats, such as ultra-processed products, biscuits, sausages and sugary drinks.
