1. Is Snacking Good or Bad for You?
During the nutritional interview, I always ask the participants to remember what they ate during the last 24 hours. It turns out that usually people remember only breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The answer to the question about second breakfast and afternoon tea is usually “I do not have such meals planned during the day, but between breakfast and lunch I ate a handful of nuts, which I drank with a glass of orange juice and still ate a piece of cake because a colleague at work had his birthday. Everything they ate between the main meals is not important to them. You were wondering why this is so? There might be a few explanations:
• Eating a snack during another activity that absorbs all our attention, e.g. during work, watching a movie or a TV series,
• No ritual accompanying a meal, i.e. no free time, no preparation of a meal (cutting, cooking, etc.) or ordering it, use of cutlery, washing and cleaning after preparation,
• Small volume and type of snack – it’s just a handful, a glass, coffee, one drink in the evening etc..,
• Circumstances that caused the consumption of snacks, e.g. the above mentioned piece of cake on the occasion of a colleague’s birthday.
For most of us, the brain will register the fact that the colleague had a birthday. There was a small break at work, you made him wishes and the cake is a small, unimportant element in all of this. Only after more detailed questions we will remember about this piece.
Counting the main meals and snacks gives us the exact value of the energy that we provide during the day. Even if our main meals are well composed, rich in protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and rich in fiber, adding energy consumed from snacks can give us a decent excess of calories.
A handful of peanuts – 30g – 185kcal,
a glass of orange juice – 240g – 98kcal,
a glass of coca-cola – 240g – 101kcal,
a piece of chocolate cake – 170g – 650kcal,
a cup of coffee with milk and sugar – 165g – 94kcal,
a drink cuba libre – 200ml – 200kcal.
In the course of the day described above we deliver an additional 1328kcal. Usually you hear the question: “I can’t lose weight. Why is this so? I eat healthy food, eat porridge in the morning, grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner and hummus sandwiches for dinner”. The answer to that question is “1328 kcal”.