Healthy Snacking

Snacks can offer nutritional advantages but they can also become liabilities depending on the amount of energy they contain. Mindless nibbling can lead to trouble in the form of unwanted calories, fat or sugar. Some snacks, such as chocolate, nuts, cheese and chips can add a lot of excess fat to the diet.

Why snack?
Many nutritionists recommend eating 5-6 meals a day to help with energy levels and weight management, however whether you should eat 3 meals or 6 meals depends on many factors. Well-chosen snacks can contribute to your daily nutrient needs and offer good recovery nutrition pre or post workout. Mindless snacking on high-calorie snack foods such as chips can sabotage your healthy eating regime.

Who should snack?
• Children need to eat regularly through out the day to provide nutrients for growth, development and activity. Think of healthy snacks as mini-meals and you’ll automatically make better choices.
• Eating smaller more frequent meals throughout the day helps keep blood sugar on a more even keel. Diabetics need to spread carbohydrates out evenly over the day as part of good diabetes management.
• If you work shifts or long hours, snacks can play an important role in productivity. Going too long in-between meals without eating can affect energy levels and concentration.
• Athletes can burn more than 5000 calories a day, the best way to deliver this amount of food is consume up into 6-8 meals over the day.