Snacking gets blamed for a great deal. We are told that proper, disciplined people eat three meals and nothing else, and that anything in between is a moral failing. This is nonsense, and unhelpful nonsense at that.
Why snacks are not the problem
A well-chosen snack can keep your energy steady, stop you arriving at dinner ravenous, and prevent the late-afternoon slump that sends you to the vending machine. The issue was never snacking itself. It was what we reach for and why.
The trouble starts when a snack is pure sugar and refined carbs, which spike your energy and then drop it, leaving you hungrier than before. That is the cycle that gives snacking its bad name.
What a good snack looks like
The useful trick is to pair some protein or fat with anything sweet, which slows everything down.
- An apple with a few nuts, rather than the apple alone
- Greek yoghurt with berries
- Oatcakes with cheese or peanut butter
- A boiled egg, dull but genuinely filling
The honest bit
None of this means biscuits are banned. A biscuit with a cup of tea is one of life's small pleasures and not worth agonising over. The aim is simply that most of your snacks do something useful, so the occasional one that is purely for joy does not matter at all.