Mindful Snacking vs. Thoughtless Snacking

The primary purpose of snacking is to take the edge off pre-mealtime hunger without exceeding your everyday caloric needs. 

Mindful snacking - or eating a nutritious, properly-portioned snack when hunger strikes - boosts your intake of essential nutrients and health-promoting food substances such as fiber and antioxidants.

Careless snacking, on the other hand, can easily take you over your daily energy requirements while providing little to no nutritional benefit - a practice that can contribute to the development of a range of health problems.

Weight Gain 

Snacking out of habit, boredom, stress or frustration rather than out of hunger often leads to weight gain. Frequent snacking is also more likely to take you over your daily calorie budget and result in excess weight, especially if you eat energy-dense snacks or your servings are large. High-calorie foods and beverages, oversized portions and frequent snacking have caused the average American adult to take in almost 600 calories more per day than in the late 1970s, according to BBC News. Researchers suggest that these factors, combined with higher levels of physical inactivity, are the source of the obesity epidemic in the United States.

Health Repercussions, Including Inflammation

Many of the most widely consumed snack foods are high in refined carbohydrates or added sugar and low in nutritional value. Non-diet soft drinks, cookies, candy, pastries, granola bars, chips, pretzels and crackers generally contain more calories and are less satiating than fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Consuming too many refined or sugar-rich foods can cause high blood triglyceride levels while decreasing levels of health-promoting HDL cholesterol and may contribute to inflammation and oxidative stress. These conditions are indicators for an increased risk of developing heart disease, especially when accompanied by excess weight. Try not to let your children watch T.V. with coke in one hand and chips in the other!

Tooth Decay

Eating frequently increases the risk of tooth decay. When your teeth come in contact with food more often, the bacteria in plaque has more time to produce enamel-damaging acids. This is particularly true for carbohydrate-rich foods, because the simple sugars that make up carbohydrates are what feed plaque bacteria. Sticky foods, or those that leave food particles between teeth or in molar pits - including dried fruit, granola bars and crackers - take longer to dissolve and therefore fuel acid production for significantly longer. To promote oral health when snacking, eat the whole snack at one time instead of nibbling it intermittently. Rinse your mouth with water afterward to remove food particles, then brush and floss if possible.

Considerations

Eaten two or three hours before lunch or dinner, a small, nutritious snack can both tide you over and help prevent you from overeating at mealtime. To make snacks part of a healthy diet, consider your energy needs and make any necessary adjustments to ensure that you don’t overspend your daily caloric allowance. Reserve sugary treats for special occasions, and avoid foods that provide nothing but empty calories. Such foods have little nutritional value and are generally not satiating.

Instead, select whole foods that are nutrient-rich, provide some amount of fiber and are relatively low in calories. An ounce of almonds and a small apple, for example, provide about 240 calories, 7 grams of fiber and a wide array of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  (Ten pretzel twists and a 16-ounce bottle of non-diet cola, however, give you 411 calories, 1.7 grams of fiber, nearly 100 grams of refined carbohydrates and 43 percent of the daily value for sodium!)

It is serious when inflammation creates joint problems and other health problems due to overeating, and wrong-eating, especially when you are trying to do your exercise and inflammation already exists!  It is a no-win situation. Call Osteoklinika if you find yourself suffering with pain.

For more information, Andrew Subieta and the clinic staff can be reached at Osteoklinika Pain Management & Rehabilitation 905.660.8810. Also, please check our website at www.osteoklinika.com for more information about Bio-Structural Integration™, or our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter pages.