Are there any healthy snacks that won’t make you fat? The truth →

More and more people eat snacks not only to resist hunger

More people are looking for delicious food and weight loss

Sometimes to kill time

There are more and more snacks to choose from

So here comes the question

What shall we eat?

Is there a “healthiest ” snack?

For healthy people, the healthiest all-day diet plan exists. Currently, following the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" can meet the health needs of most people.

However, dietary requirements vary greatly at different stages of life, such as infancy, childhood, pregnancy, lactation, and old age. Disease conditions also have an impact on diet, such as hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia, which all have their own dietary requirements.

As part of a full-day diet, the healthiness of snacks depends on their consistency with dietary guidelines. The need for snacks varies according to the stage of life, health status and meal content.

And there is no such thing as the frequency, time and type of snacking that is suitable for everyone. However, you can find the most suitable healthy snacks for yourself according to your personal situation.

How do I choose the best snack for me?

First, compare your current meals with the dietary guidelines. If you find that certain ingredients are lacking, you can make up for them with snacks.

Most people do not have enough fiber in their meals, so vegetables and fruits are excellent snacks. For those who eat less fish, poultry, eggs, meat and milk for their meals, they should choose protein-rich snacks.

While supplementing the missing nutrients, we must also avoid excessive intake. Most people already have a lot of energy and salt in their meals, so they can only choose snacks with low energy and avoid high-salt types.

In addition, added sugar and fat in the diet mainly come from snacks. Even if you only eat salad for meals, the amount of added sugar and fat after a few cups of milk tea will still exceed the standard.

In addition to balancing nutrients, high-sugar diets should be reduced as much as possible to prevent tooth decay.

When choosing snacks for infants and young children, pay special attention to avoiding types that may cause choking (such as grapes, nuts, and jelly), and also consider their growth and development needs.

When there are special needs, choose snacks according to the specific situation. For example, people with anemia can supplement snacks rich in heme iron, people with hypertension and heart disease can avoid high-salt snacks, and people with diabetes can avoid high-sugar snacks. Adjust the type of snacks according to weight goals, and eat appropriately in advance to ensure exercise status.

Comorbidities are not a reason to prohibit snacks. Increasing the frequency of meals can help improve blood pressure and blood lipids.

Does eating snacks make you fat or lose weight?

In addition to whether they are delicious and healthy, the impact of snacks on weight should be the most concerned aspect.

So, does snacking really make you fat?

Not necessarily. Some people gain weight by eating snacks, while others become thinner the more they eat.

This depends not only on the frequency, time, ingredients, and whether you eat snacks in solid or liquid form, but also on the people you eat with, the situation, and the state in which you eat.

Snacks are an important part of a healthy diet for people who do not consume enough energy from regular meals, are deficient in certain nutrients, or are underweight.

If you can’t eat the food at the main meal, you can eat it at other times of the day to supplement various nutrients. If the main meal already contains enough or even too much energy, and you add snacks (especially those high in sugar and fat), your weight will naturally not be well controlled.

If you eat the wrong food, you will gain weight

01 Inappropriate ingredients and form

The factors that affect the relationship between snacks and weight, in addition to the total amount, the most important are energy and nutrition. The higher the energy content of a certain weight of snacks, the less beneficial nutrients they contain, and the more likely it is to make people gain weight.

The most affected are sugary drinks such as cola and milk tea, followed by high-sugar and high-fat desserts, biscuits, potato chips and fried foods.

The same is true for fresh fruits. If eaten whole, they can be a good snack. However, if they are squeezed into juice, they can easily make people gain weight due to the rapid absorption of sugar and low satiety.

02 Not hungry, just want to eat

Do you snack because you are hungry or just bored? People are more likely to choose healthy snacks when they feel hungry, but are more likely to choose high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt snacks when they are not hungry.

Eating snacks to pass the time can easily lead to weight gain and nutritional imbalance.

03 The scene is not suitable

Most people choose healthier snacks at home or work, and tend to overeat and choose fattening varieties elsewhere.

For example, when watching TV series at home, you may eat an apple as a snack, but when you go to the cinema to watch a movie, you will inevitably buy a bucket of popcorn.

Everyone knows that buffets with a wide variety of foods are prone to overeating, and the same goes for snacks. Generally, the more types of foods you can choose from, the more you eat.

Therefore, you need to be extra careful about controlling your snacking when you are out, especially when faced with a variety of different snacks.

04 Not eating with enough concentration

If you are not focusing on the food itself when eating, but are watching TV series or playing games while eating, you will not only tend to overeat at that time, but you will also eat more at the next meal.

And the more boring the snacks you focus on, the more you eat, so not choosing the right dramas may also be one of the reasons why you can't lose weight.

05 Use snacks to relieve stress

When people are in a bad mood or under great psychological pressure, they prefer snacks high in energy, sugar and fat content, especially women.

If you don’t control yourself, you may feel better right after eating, but then regret the fat on your body.

In addition, studies have found that the amount of snacking we eat is influenced by our peers. When we see our friends eating a lot, we will unconsciously eat more.

Even when eating alone, clues such as the size of the package left by others can influence your choices.

Another common saying is that "eating snacks at night makes you fat." It is true that most people who eat snacks at night are fatter than those who eat during the day, but the time of day is not the most important factor.

Instead, people are more willing to choose fruits and vegetables as snacks during the day and prefer high-energy snacks at night. They also do other things while eating, which leads to eating more.

There are also tips for eating snacks to lose weight

With the exception of laxatives, most things will not make you lose weight if you eat more. The following recommendations are about how to minimize excess energy intake and how to be less hungry when losing weight.

If you don’t have the habit of eating snacks, and your meals are nutritious and you don’t feel hungry when you are losing weight, there is no need to force yourself to add snacks.

01 Fiber provides a strong sense of fullness

The higher the fiber content in the snack, the stronger the feeling of fullness and the better the effect of reducing the amount of food eaten at the next meal.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber and low in calories, making them suitable for filling your stomach when you are hungry (fruits with very high fat and sugar content, such as durian, avocado and dates, can only be eaten in small amounts).

Staple foods can also be used as snacks. Eating foods made from whole grains (such as oats) will make you less likely to feel hungry than eating refined rice and flour (such as white bread).

02 High-protein snacks are beneficial

Does eating a piece of meat jerky make you less hungry than a drink or ice cream with the same energy level? Compared with snacks high in carbohydrates or fat, high-protein snacks are the most filling.

Moreover, after eating high-protein snacks, it is easier to resist the temptation of high sugar and high fat, and it may even improve cognitive function.

When losing weight, you can choose dairy products (yogurt and milk without added sugar, etc.; if the daily consumption is large, choose skimmed or low-fat dairy products) and nuts (salt-free) as snacks.

03 Snack frequency, timing and amount suitable for most people

For most people, it is appropriate to eat snacks 2 to 3 times a day, preferably when you are hungry.

The total energy of snacks should account for 5% to 15% of the daily diet, which is roughly equivalent to an adult eating a medium-sized apple, a small cup of sugar-free yogurt (100 to 150 grams), and two plain walnuts every day.

04 Choose to start from purchase

Try to go to the supermarket when you are full to avoid buying snacks that may make you gain weight due to hunger impulse. Also, always have some low-energy snacks on hand and place them in a place where you can reach them most easily.

For pre-packaged snacks, try to choose smaller portions. Who would stop eating halfway through a delicious snack once it’s opened?

Finally, there is another way to lose weight and feel full - drink more water. This is a clear and effective way, but you should drink water without energy. Coke, milk tea, coffee with sugar and milk are all snacks, not water!