Surely we 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 necessary to play sports, play for a while or even do our homework and, above all, , which allowed us to get to dinner. This should not change, even if 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 only for children and adolescents, 12% do not do it to avoid gaining weight and 72% consider that it is only a complement. for people who have not eaten well at midday, according to the III Study Lidl-5 a day about snack habits in Spain. But, although you should avoid snacking between meals, a healthy snack has numerous benefits.
Why is snack important?
Although it all depends on the structure of the rest of the meals we eat throughout the day, the snack can be a good time to complete the total recommended daily ration, but not to increase it.
According to the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) it is important to get the energy we need from the different daily meals. Thus, 25% must come from breakfast (15% if we have a light breakfast and the other 10% from mid-morning lunch), 35% from the midday meal, 10% from the snack and the remaining 30% from dinner
What happens if we skip any of these meals and, specifically, the snack? According to the ANIBES scientific studypeople with abdominal obesity consume more energy at lunch and less in the mid-morning and snack than those without abdominal obesity. According to the results of the study, the importance of the mid-morning and snack, as long as the content is adequate – 15% of the total daily intake – is notable for several reasons.
Firstly, because it is a good time to introduce healthy foods, such as dairy products, fruits and vegetables, which helps 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 allow too many hours to 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 will run the risk of overeating.
Plus, we’ll probably crave carbohydrate-rich foods at night, rather than a salad, which will do little or nothing to help when we’re starving. The snack, therefore, helps us avoid snacking before dinner, digest better if we have slow digestion and calm the digestive system, avoiding heaviness in the stomach at night. It also helps regulate our appetite and prevent us from losing control over our food intake: snacking allows us to eat lighter at night because we have already eaten something a few hours before. And a light dinner leads to better digestion.
What a healthy snack should be like
Making a snack healthy is as important or more important than the need not to skip this meal in the middle of the afternoon if we need to. However, the rush and little attention that the snack receives often makes it an unhealthy and not at all recommended snack. Reversing this situation involves limiting or eliminating unhealthy foods and prioritizing healthy ones, in addition to doing so about three hours before dinner.
If snacks account for 15% of our daily nutritional intake, that does not mean that we can eat everything. It is important that we take advantage of this short gastronomic break to complement the nutritional contribution that we sometimes neglect in the rest of the meals and that we take advantage of it to incorporate a small intake of food, not a complete meal. What does this mean? The first step is, if we follow the guide Small changes to eat betterprepared by the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, incorporate more fruit.
What can we do to avoid succumbing to the typical chocolate bar from the vending machine? 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. When consuming a snack balanced, we offer our body the appropriate carbohydrates that allow us to recover energy for several hours and remain efficient.
Snack can be a good time to eat vegetables, such as tomato slices 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 juices or any other sugary drinks. Water is the best choice and the drink par excellence in a healthy snack, because 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 is half of the two daily recommended dairy products, hence we must pay attention to not accumulating more than two in one day. Another option is to have a serving of fruit with yogurt and tea or coffee.
We should think of the snack as a mini-breakfast in which we can include a hot drink, a fruit, a dairy product, and starchy foods in the form of whole-grain bread or crackers. Although 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, cookies, sausages and sugary drinks.
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