Snacking

Snacking: Concepts, Characteristics, and Perception

Snacking remains a term without a universally accepted definition. However, research provides some clarity on its nature and implications. Katherine Chaplin and Andrew Smith, in their study for the journal Appetite, define it as "food or drink consumed between main meals". From a nutritional perspective, the textbook Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies by Frances Sienkiewicz Sizer and Ellie Whitney gives a caloric context, suggesting that an average sedentary male requires around 2400 kilocalories daily, while a sedentary female needs about 2000 kcal. Subtracting the average caloric content from three main meals, the remaining balance provides a caloric window for snacking.

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Local snacks

Healthy Snacking

Healthy snacking is characterized by five key attributes: adequacy, balance, calorie control, moderation, and variety. These factors ensure the consumption of a nutritious diet.

• Adequacy: It signifies consuming essential nutrients, fiber, and energy in correct amounts daily.
• Balance: A balanced diet doesn't favor one nutrient group over another but ensures all essential nutrients are adequately consumed.
• Calorie Control: This pertains to consuming food in amounts that help maintain a healthy weight.
• Moderation: It's about limiting the intake of components like fats, sugars, and salts without being overly restrictive.
• Variety: Incorporating a range of different foods enhances nutritional adequacy and makes eating more enjoyable.

A defining feature of a healthy snack is its ability to promote both satiation and satiety. Satiation happens during eating when the brain recognizes that enough food has been consumed. The expansion of the stomach, stimulating nerve receptors, sends signals to the brain indicating fullness. On the other hand, satiety is the feeling of fullness post-eating, which curbs the frequency of hunger signals. Foods rich in water, fiber, protein, and even fat can enhance feelings of satiety.

Nutrient density is crucial when evaluating snacks. It compares nutrients to calorie content. Foods that are more nutrient-dense provide essential nutrients without excessive calorie intake. Contrarily, energy density refers to the calories per gram of food, emphasizing the importance of low-caloric foods that can be consumed in larger quantities.

Choosing snacks that are low in energy density, rich in nutrient density, and embody the five principles of healthy snacking can lead to prolonged feelings of fullness and support weight management.

Unhealthy Snacking

Unhealthy snacking behaviors are diverse. Not eating for extended periods can be detrimental. As noted by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, symptoms of starvation can manifest when there's no food intake for three to six hours. Extended fasting slows down metabolism and intensifies cravings, particularly for high-carbohydrate foods. The brain produces Neuropeptide Y during such periods, leading to carb binging that can exceed daily caloric needs.

Other unhealthy snacking patterns are:

• Emotional Eating: Consuming food in response to emotions like boredom, procrastination, excitement, love, frustration, stress, and mild depression.
• Convenience and Availability: Opting for readily available, energy-dense foods, often leading to a diet replete in calories, fat, and salt but deficient in vital nutrients.

Consumer Perception

The perceived healthiness of snacks influences consumer behaviors. Janet Polivy and C. Peter Herman highlight that many individuals equate the healthiness of a snack to its caloric and fat content. "Healthy" snacks are presumed to be low-calorie, while "unhealthy" ones are high-calorie. This perception can be misleading, as demonstrated in a study where participants consumed 35% more of a snack deemed "healthy" compared to when the same snack was labeled "unhealthy".

Case studies

Snacking frequency in adolescents

It was found in a study by Rhonda S. Sebastian, Linda E. Cleveland, and Joseph D. Goldman that snacking occasions for all age groups has increased over the last 25 years. 4,357 adolescents ages 12–19 were surveyed in order to find how the consumption of nutrients and the meeting of recommendations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPyramid Food Guidance System are impacted by the adolescents’ snacking level.

Results: As snacking frequency increased in the adolescents, the amount of carbohydrates consumed increased along with sugar consumption. The consumption of fats and energy-adjusted proteins decreased. Increased snacking frequency positively affected the intake of vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C, and magnesium in boys and vitamin C in girls. Fruit intake increased as snacking frequency increased for both boys and girls. The three cup daily milk recommendation was met for boys snacking at the highest level, but girls did not meet the milk recommendation. Milk is one of the highest contributors in adolescents’ calcium consumption. Although, during the past 25 years, people have moved toward dietary habits of snacking rather than daily meals, meals generally contribute more nutrient-dense foods to a diet than snacks. In order to make up for this loss of nutrients, snack choices need to consist of nutrient-dense foods. Snacking frequency improved the chance of meeting fruit recommendations for boys and girls, milk and oil recommendations for boys, and affected the intake of all macronutrients and some micronutrients.

Benefits of snacking for older people

Claire A. Zizza, Francis A. Tayie, and Mark Lino studied the effects of snacking on older Americans. As humans age, it is known that their energy (kcal) intake decreases. The study says, “Comparisons between 25- and 70-year-olds showed declines of 1,000 to 1,200 kcal/day for men and 600 to 800 kcal/day for women”. Reasons for this decline include physiological changes, a switch in the sensation of thirst and hunger, chronic diseases, a decline in physical functioning, limited resources and social factors, namely widowhood. Healthy older persons’ low intakes of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and total energy were found to be strong predictors of mortality. These low intakes can also cause unwanted weight loss which is related to potential life-threatening physical limitations. This loss of weight can be prevented by instituting a proper diet.

Results: In a sample of 2,002 older people, ages 65+, 84% were ambitious snackers. Nonsnackers ingested an average of 1,466 kilocalories daily while snackers ingested an average of 1,718 kcal. The US Department of Agriculture’s MyPyramid states that the recommended consumption of energy for older adults is 1,600 kcal. The study shows that, “In this age group, snacking contributed approximately a quarter of their daily energy and carbohydrate intakes and a fifth of their daily fat intake”. Adding healthful snacking to the dietary behavior of older adults in Zizza, Tayie, and Lino’s study proved to increase their total energy intake preventing inadequate diets.

Night-time snacking

A study done by SL Colles, JB Dixon, and PE O’Brien on snacking at night relates obesity, binge eating disorder (BED), and psychological stress to night eating syndrome (NES). This syndrome constitutes a pattern of eating where most food is consumed late in the day and at night, sometimes including waking up during the night to snack. It causes morning anorexia and evening hyperphagia and insomnia. This condition is observed most frequently in overweight and obese people. Being a recent syndrome to emerge, the study says, “It is currently unclear whether NES, as a discrete condition, is associated with emotional distress, impairment or disability, and thereby represents an eating disorder of clinical significance”. It may just be a behavioral condition linked to obesity and weight gain. The study was conducted by distributing surveys to people ages 18–70 that had not undergone previous bariatric surgery.

Results: NES and BMI are positively related, meaning that the generalized belief that NES is associated with overweight and obese individuals has a stronger basis for being true. To relate NES with BED the study showed, “[Binge-eaters] were almost seven times more likely to manifest NES than non-[binge-eaters]”. This showed that it is common for individuals that show traits of NES also have BED. The results, however, for the relation between NES and psychological distress were found to contrast those for BED. Individuals who exhibited traits of NES showed low psychological distress, whereas those who were binge-eaters showed high psychological distress. This showed that those who exhibited signs of BED were more likely to be depressed and concerned about their weight. This study was the first to observe differences between those who did and did not wake up for nocturnal snacks. The study shows that, “Frequent nocturnal snackers reported higher symptoms of depression and hunger . . . compared to the NES who did not wake to eat”. This shows clinical significance and that nocturnal snackers have a more severe impairment than individuals with NES.

The effect of watching television on snacking

Harriëtte M. Snoek, Tatjana van Strien, Jan M.A.M. Janssens, and Rutger C.M.E. Engels recorded a study of the effect of television viewing on adolescents’ snacking. They explain three theories on the relationship between eating behavior and being overweight and how they relate to watching television. The first theory centers on external eating declaring that some people are more sensitive to food cues than others. Food cues found on television include food advertisements. Certain people can be influenced by these cues regardless of their state of hunger and satiety. The second theory is the restraint theory, which states, “Dieting can lead to overeating”. Weight-related advertisements and images of a stereotypical attractive female on television can generate negative feelings toward the body and low self-esteem in individuals who are dieting causing them to overeat. The third theory is known as the psychosomatic theory, which deals with those who eat in response to their emotions. In these individuals, negative emotions cause excessive eating rather than the normal response of appetite loss. The study used 10,087 Dutch adolescents 11–16 years of age. Snacking was measured as, “The number of sweet and/or savory snacks respondents usually ate per day”. The participants were required to rate their frequency of television viewing and measure their eating behavior through a questionnaire.

Results: Participants who received a high score under the external eating category of the questionnaire ate more snacks than those who did not; those who received a high score under the restrained eating category ate fewer snacks than those who did not; and those who received a high score under the emotional eating category ate more snacks than those who did not. The study showed that external and emotional eaters were more likely to snack when influenced by television and restrained eaters were less likely to snack due to the influence of television. The study shares that, “The interaction between [television viewing], emotional eating and snacking was only significant for boys,” possibly due to the, “inadequacy in dealing with negative emotions,” which might be a personality trait that is different from men to women.

See also

• Snack foods
  • List of snack foods
  • List of Indian snack foods

External links

• Wikibooks Cookbook
• Healthy snacks for kids - articles /foods/recipes /healthy life-style

Snacking Resources
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