Here's How To Snack If You Don't Want To Undo All Your Hard Work To Eat Healthy
We’re in pursuit to make life’s little pleasures good for us.
by The Candidly Team
Lots of things make us snacky. Boredom. Fatigue. Dehydration. Stress. Hormones. Oh, and actual hunger.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A new study presented at Nutrition 2023 showed that it’s the quality of our snacks that matters most to our health. Not how many we have. Or when we decide to have them (with maybe the exception of late-night grazing).
But here’s the big problem with that. Our healthy eating habits can fly out the window when it comes to our snacks. And this certainly makes some sense, given that the reason we often reach for a junky, packaged thing is that we’re in a rush and not setting aside time the way we might with a meal.
Even those of us who are inclined to eat the most nutritious of meals can get very loosey goosey about our inter-meal noshing.
More than 25% of people who say they eat healthy at breakfast, lunch, and dinner also say they’re inclined to reach for empty, processed, sugary snacks, according to a 2023 study. And considering that 90% of Americans claim to be snackers, we’re looking at a hefty (though maybe not surprising) number of us who are not snacking in a way that serves us.
So, the big question is how can we snack … better? Well, here is a little guide of 8 straight-forward things that can make a huge difference.
We’ll start with two preliminary tasks that can help set your body up to actually know when its hungry and needs sustenance:
1. Stay hydrated.
Sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger. And this is not us telling you to drink water when you’re hungry to try to trick yourself into thinking you’re not. This is us telling you to drink enough water in general, so your strange, little trickster of a body doesn’t tell you you’re hungry when you’re actually in need of liquid.
2. Get enough sleep.
Do we need to cite a study here? Or do you already know from being a human on this planet for any number of years that when you’re exhausted from the night before, your next-day hunger can be unruly?
But to get scientific about it, lack of sleep can adversely mess with two hormones we have, one that makes us hungry and the other that makes us feel full. So not getting enough is doing a big disservice to your body and your ability to understand what it really needs.
Ok, now for the juicy bit - the part that involves the actual act of snacking:
3. Think quality over quantity.
We know this sounds like a broad, obvious statement. But that same snacking study we keep mentioning showed that people who select high-quality, nutrient-rich snack foods had “better blood fat and insulin responses” and “better cardiometabolic health.” They were also more likely to be at a healthy weight. “High-quality” means a high nutrient to calorie ratio, so things like nuts, fruit, and veggies are obviously great options.
The basic idea here is that you don’t need to treat snacking, as a verb, as a bad thing. Instead, just give more thought to what that snack is gonna be and how it will benefit you.
4. Up the protein to nourish your future self.
One major problem with snacking is that we tend to fill ourselves up with small bits of empty things that don’t leave us remotely satisfied long-term. So we keep coming back, looking for more and more and never getting full.
One big benefit to protein is that it makes you feel more satiated. You feel fuller for longer, so eating more of it is like a longterm game-plan for you to not require more snacks down the line.
Some grabbable high-protein foods include:
Greek yogurt
Hard-boiled eggs
Cottage cheese
Roasted chickpeas
Edamame
Turkey slices
Nuts, nut butters, and seeds
Cheese
Chia pudding
5. Keep a gorgeous fruit bowl on hand.
This is just another way of saying, make it easy on yourself. After you shop, set aside a great big, glistening bowl of fruit you’d see on the kitchen set of a Nancy Meyers movie. Being able to grab and go is everything. And yet another study showed that eating fruit instead of chips or chocolate was associated with “lower anxiety, depression, and emotional distress.” So, your mood will also benefit.
6. Avoid highly processed foods by pre-making yourself little snack packs.
Oh look, another no-brainer statement that’s 83x easier said than done. But the main reason we choose a packaged thing is for convenience, no? Ok, it’s often delicious as well, but if we had a private chef whipping us up delectable, nutrient-rich snack trays, we wouldn’t be so inclined to reach for that bag of chips at the checkout counter.
The point is if we treated our snacks more like a meal, we’d put more into preparing them. Anything we can do to have something readily made for ourselves is going to help us avoid making highly processed choices.
A great hack is to buy those divided little trays you get your kids for their lunchbox and fill them up with no less than 3 things you like: think protein, fiber, and plenty of vitamins. Different textures will add to the satisfaction.
A good example might be carrot sticks, hummus, and a scoop of edamame or greek yogurt, strawberries, and a handful of almonds.
7. Stop before 9PM.
Ok, so the one time you might wanna cut yourself off from snacking is later in the eve. Studies have shown that post-9PM grazing “was associated with poorer blood markers compared to all other snacking times.” This is also that prime moment when people start to throw all their healthful daytime habits into thin air, eating more fatty, sugary foods.
8. Our current leaderboard of snacks:
Pre-frozen smoothie packs: Freeze banana slices, spinach, and a dash of cinnamon as a base. Toss them into a blender with THIS incredibly coconutty milk, any fruit or berries you like, and either a scoop of nut butter or Greek yogurt for protein.
THIS incredible bowl we have for breakfast but also as a snack.
Shrimp cocktail: We are not joking. We buy precooked shrimp and cocktail sauce, and we have ourselves a high-protein, low calorie, absolutely divine afternoon treat.
Your very basic but oh-so-good hummus with any selection of chopped veg: We know you know about hummus, but did you know it’s been scientifically shown that adults who ate a low-sugar hummus snack in the afternoon experienced improved diet quality, glycemic control, and satiety?
THIS chia pudding with berries or bananas and a sprinkle of nuts
P.S. Our biggest hack of all
A little practice that is quite simple but can be super helpful is to NEVER eat things directly out of the bag. Instead, make a plate. It’s a way to control portion and not just be mindless about snacking. It also reminds you that you are very much worth that little moment of plate composition. You might even call it an act of self love. Tiny, but glorious.
This article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used in place of professional advice, medical treatment, or professional care in any way. This article is not intended to be and should not be a substitute for professional care, advice or treatment. Please consult with your physician or healthcare provider before changing any health regimen. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease of any kind. Read our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
