Many times, when I pick up a book or listen to a podcast I hear repetitive or contradictive information. What is right and what is wrong? At the end of the day, we all have to choose what right for us and what works for our body. Personally, I am a huge believer in the following article “There’s no such thing as a healthy snack”.
I have written many blog posts on food and especially snacking (see partial list at end of blog)
Based on this quoted article, I want to update my beliefs. The food mentioned still mostly remains in the healthy category. The change is that they can be options for meals vs options for snacks.
The Fatburn Fix is written by Catherine Shanahan, MD and I have copied a powerful message on snacking right out of her book.
Quoted Article
“We get messages all day that try to convince us snacking is good for us. There are millions of webpages devoted to healthy snacking and a news article nearly daily on the latest healthy snack craze. Don’t believe the hype.
Whenever you snack, you are teaching your metabolism unhealthy habits. Whether we’re talking about snacking on candy or soda, fruit or nuts, protein bars or protein shakes, if you want to lose weight, you need to break the snacking habit.
When you snack frequently, the circadian clock in your stomach is set to alarm at whatever time you normally snack, and when that clock goes off, you get hungry. In other words, snacking trains your metabolism to make you want more snacks. The more time you eat on any given day, the more time you’ll spend building fat instead of burning it. Just like anything else you practice, by snacking, you’ll get better and better at building fat, meanwhile your metabolism almost never gets to practice burning it.
We can be tricked into thinking snacking is healthy if snacking makes us feel temporarily better. If we’re tired and snacks give us more energy, we can easily be tricked into thinking that snacking is boosting our metabolism.
But don’t be fooled. Even snacks that boost your energy are disrupting your fatburn.”
Next Steps
I love food and love snacking – well I used to! Based on Dr Cate’s book and research, I am working on cutting out snacking (on most days). This is a huge change for me, but I do believe that “There’s no such thing as a healthy snack”. Do you want to join me in my new journey?