Remember when mum used to say "stop snacking, you'll ruin your dinner"? Well, now you can go back and tell your mum that the latest research shows that consuming small portions of healthy foods throughout the day is in fact the best way to eat.
Research shows many health benefits from eating repeated small snacks including weight loss, improved glucose tolerance, reduced appetite (by 27%), reduced cholesterol levels (9%), reduced insulin levels (28%) and reduced cortisol levels (17%). This means that by snacking healthily, you will have a reduced chance of strokes, heart disease and diabetes, some of the biggest killers going around.
Eating lots of smaller snacks also helps your body feel full and maintain a more consistent energy level for a longer period of time. This is because small amounts of slow-burning food release a more consistent flow of glucose sugars into your bloodstream, rather than a sudden spike in sugar insulin followed by a 'crash and burn'.
The most important thing about snacking is to choose healthy foods. You want to eat things that maintain your energy levels for long periods of time, so that the sugars are absorbed into your bloodstream more slowly. But remember, even if a food is low G.I. (slow burning), it's not always necessarily healthy. For example, ice cream is low G.I., but it is obviously better to choose something like nuts and seeds, wholegrains (limited amounts), vegetables (preferably raw), fruit (limited amounts, due to their high carb content), or cold meats. Also remember that sugary drinks (i.e. soft drinks or fruit juices) will cause the same spikes and troughs in energy levels as sugary snacks.
Plan your healthy snacks for the week when grocery shopping and put them on your desk or close at hand, so if you do feel like a snack during the day, that's the first thing you'll reach for.
Dr Brett Hill's Top 5 Tips for Healthy Daytime Snacking
1. Plan ahead: you need to make sure you have healthy snacks around you
2. Eat healthy nuts (walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, cashews) as opposed to peanuts.
3. Choose raw vegetables such as carrots, snow peas, broccolini or cherry tomatoes.
4. Avoid sugary snacks or refined carbohydrates (chips, muesli bars, biscuits, chocolate, lollies)
5.Choose water over soft drinks, coffee and tea (which give energy spikes and crashes).
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