The biggest problem with modern eating – the root cause of many of our nutritional, weight, and behavioral woes – is snacks. Compared to what our grandparents ate at mealtimes, modern meals have certainly changed, but the most significant change, by far, from then to now is the volume we eat between meals.
If you’re a regular snacker who’s nonetheless healthy and happy, my hat is off to you. For the rest of us, here are a few good reasons to sack the snacks:
1- Snacking encourages excess.
Many of us are mindlessly consuming just as many calories during the morning and evening commute as we take in during actual meals. Top off all that excess “nutrition” with an hour or two of prime-time munching every night and it’s no wonder we’re hauling around unhealthy amounts of excess fat.
2- We have a drinking problem.
Humans are the only animals that take in calories in liquid form past babyhood. Everything from the dollop of honey in your herbal tea 1 to the extra whipped cream on your grande Caramel Macchi-friggin’-ato 2, and, god-forbid – SODA 3– is bombarding us with unnecessary, nutrient-free energy. 4 What’s worse, because liquid snacks aren’t chewed or otherwise mechanically processed, the body doesn’t even register having eaten.
3- Has anyone seen my standards? I could swear I had some.
Few of us hold snacks to the same nutritional standards to which we hold actual meals. Snacks are, by design, quick, convenient, and cheap. To meet these criteria, snacks are mostly made of government-subsidized grain and sugar, stripped of nutrients, loaded with chemical preservatives and artificial flavors. If that shit wouldn’t fly for dinner, why the hell are we eating it at all?
Oh, right…
4- A snack (several times) a day keeps the withdrawal away.
Snacking on cheap, portable (read: sugar- and starch-based) foods makes it easier for food addicts like myself to turn a blind eye to their dependency. Most practicing food addicts experience low-level discomfort 5 soon after eating a triggering food 6. The discomfort grows 7 until we take in more of the addictive food. “Low blood sugar” is a euphemism for withdrawal; we snack to alleviate the symptoms. 8
5- It’s all relative.
If you’re eating all day, every day, what impact is that having on your experience of mealtimes? Odds are you feel less enthusiastic about dinner because, really, by that point in the day, you’ve already taken in way more energy than your body needs or wants, you haven’t built up any genuine hunger to sate, and it just means having to do dishes, for Christ’s sake. 9 Healthy relationships to food involve hunger, just as healthy relationships to sleep involve fatigue. The need builds, is satisfied, and builds again. Near-constant snacking robs us of the chance to experience the incredible pleasure of a truly satisfying meal, much like sleeping every two hours would toast any hope we might have for getting a good night’s sleep.
If you’re in active addiction, dropping snacks probably isn’t a very bright idea. 10 But if you’ve adopted abstinence, I encourage you to drop “snack” from your vocabulary. If you’ve steered clear of sugar and starch for a few weeks or months, you’ve almost certainly noticed that genuine hunger hits much less frequently than it did when you were eating crap. When true hunger does hit, honor your body’s needs by eating a nutritious, high-quality meal. If you can’t wrap your head around eating a meal at 11 am, go ahead and call it a ‘snack,’ but hold it to the same, meal-like standards, and eat it mindfully. Avoid snacking just because it’s that time of day, or because it would take a minute to think up something better to do. Part of the beauty of abstinence is the time it frees up to do everything in the world but feed our addiction.
Notes:
- Dirty hippie. ↩
- Yuppie dolt. ↩
- Pop, for those of you in Minnesota. ↩
- I carried 150+ pounds of excess energy for years. ↩
- Nervousness, muscular/joint discomfort, mild anxiety, moodiness… ↩
- More often than not, the food is sugar- or starch-based, prompting the release of an excess of insulin, which causes the nagging, atmospheric discomfort. ↩
- Mood swings, confusion, fatigue, poor memory, exhaustion… ↩
- I’m not suggesting, by using this language, that sugar withdrawal is anything like drug or alcohol withdrawal. But just because it’s not as extreme doesn’t mean this isn’t the appropriate language. Addiction is addiction, no matter where it’s specific symptoms, manifestations, and triggers happen to fall on the spectrum of intensity. ↩
- Unlike the sticky bun you had mid-afternoon, which came in easy-to-dispose-of waxed paper. ↩
- Plus, I wouldn’t want to be blamed for you going all postal at work, crashing your car, filing for divorce or failing your final exams because you JUST NEEDED A FIX, man. ↩
Totally agree. I booted snacks a couple of months ago in the lead up to Christmas and haven’t looked back. Just keeps things *simple*.
Good on you. I find them totally unnecessary when I’m eating good, generously-portioned meals, myself.
Your blog makes so much sense. I want this. But I don’t know where to start. It’s crazy; I’m a woman in my late 40s, have kids, a good marriage, starting a new career…but I can’t figure food out. My question for you, Kelly, is what makes up a generously portioned meal?
Hey, Lou. You’d be amazed how much good, driven, smart, capable company we’re in.
A generously portioned meal, eating as I eat, involves foods to which you healthily relate, in whatever portions make you feel satisfied, body and mind.
Today, for lunch, I had cold, probably a 1/2 pound of cold, leftover steak over a plateful of leftover roasted asparagus, some roasted reds out of a jar and like a pot of coffee. I don’t necessarily recommend the pot of coffee.
I am stung by the dirty hippie remark 🙁 But I don’t use sweetener so I guess I can let it go 🙂
If *that* were the thing you found offensive! Ha!
I hear you talk about abstinence – so are you a proponent of weighing and measuring each meal, like they do in Food Addicts Anonymous? (I also sent you an email)
I encourage folks to do the best thing for them. I’ve worked with many people for whom weighing, measuring and counting is a prelude to disaster. I’ve known two for whom weighing and measuring was the only solution. I never weigh or measure or count calories, as the very idea gives me hives.
As I sit here in a fog of exhaustion after eating a mostly healthy snack, oatmeal, covered in not so healthy coconut sugar….I think I will try to cut out snacks and see how it goes. This feeling sucks and I want it to stop. I made great food choices for a year and lost 120lbs, got out of the habit when I met my fiancé and gained 34lbs back.
Feeling a little lost in finding my motivation again but your blog has me amped up. I’m down 4lbs in the past three weeks, been at the gym every day, just not eating very well. And I think we all know you can’t out train you diet…
I can honestly say that no blogger has struck such an honest chord with me in a long time. I think I might have a new favourite.
I just discovered your blog, and I love it. I have heard most of the things you say a thousand times, but this is the first time it actually really hit home. I have been a yo-yo dieter most of my life, and had given up trying to lose weight and be healthier. Now I feel like there is hope again. Thank you so much!
I totally stumbled on your blog tonight, I don’t even remember from where and now I’m addicted to it! Lol. Love the practical, no BS approach and it all being about self-love. I think my hubby might even enjoy this. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks for saying so, Donna. And tell the hubs I said wassup.