Snacking is great, but here's how you can do it in a healthy way
Most people who come to me for a lifestyle overhaul or weight-loss programme are confused about one thing: To snack or not to snack.
Well, I am all for snacking, so my nod usually makes them very happy. But what follows is the bigger question: what to snack on?
This takes some explanation, some serious education, and involves a few habit changes too.
Consider this: it’s 4pm and you are fidgeting again. But chances are that it’s not your stomach but your mind that is growling, asking for something to munch on. You reach out for the packet of namkeen lying handy in your drawer and mindlessly munch on it. After chomping through half the packet you realise that you have in last 10 minutes added humongous amount of unnecessary calories to your entire day’s diet. So you begin wallowing in guilt, and thanks to resultant dip in the mood manage to eat the rest of it too.
Familiar right?
Well, you are not alone. According to Nielsen’s Global Survey of Snacking done in 2014 — 67% of Indians choose snacks over meals and 56% are replacing dinner and lunch with snacks.
Is this obsession with snacking out to affect our health?
Well, it is important to understand that snacking will not make anyone fat — only too many calories, and chomping “wrong” unhealthy snacks will. So instead of fretting or berating them, or even blaming them, my modus operandi is to train everyone to get smart about snacking. This in fact very often a big part of my programme, and half the battle is won (believe me) when I manage to get people to learn how to snack right. All this takes is some coaching.
Now I understand that it is not possible every time to organise a home cooked snack, so the next best thing is to be prepared, and to learn how to pick the best amongst the lot available and accessible to you. Below are some smart snacking moves I teach everyone (and practice myself too):
Know your snack!
First flip the cover and look at the back. Look closely at the process the snack is made, its nutrition value and ingredients. Look for whether the snack is baked or fried? Is there hydrogenated (trans) fat in there? Check calorie count per serve.
Always be sure that the snack you have picked up is really healthy. Don’t go just go by the claims on the pack of your diet mixture or “light bite” — about it being low in calories etc. Instead read the fine print on the label to detect how loaded the snack is and with what. Don’t fall for the marketing bling blindly.
It’s a no brainer that a baked snack will be far better, far healthier, have less fat and specifically lower saturated fat, and will be lower in calories too as compared to a snack that has been fried. In most cases, a baked snack will have 20-30% less fat than a fried snack. So don’t forget to check the pack for the same.
But that said it is also important to know what constitutes a truly baked snack. Baking uses prolonged dry heat for cooking, usually in an oven. Here the bonus is that heat in this way of cooking is gradually transferred from the surface of food to their centre, and this gives the snack a firm dry crust, a softer centre, and a crusty texture keeping the taste of the snack intact. So a true baked snack will actually be tastier that a fried snack, and will also not (should not) leave an unpalatable layer of oil on your fingers. Do the “touch test”, to be sure.
So, don’t say no to snacking, just be wise, do your due diligence, choose carefully and enjoy your snacks guilt-free.