It’s about 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon. You’ve already eaten your lunch but you are still feeling peckish and overwhelmed with the pile of work you have to get through before end of day. You reach into your desk drawer to find the solution you’ve been looking for – an easy to eat granola bar. Perfect! No need to walk over to the lunch room and disrupt your flow of energy directed right into your computer screen. Sound familiar? This is just one of many scenarios that more and more North American’s face each day as they succumb to a snack attack.
So what’s so bad about snacking, you might ask. It’s not so much the act of snacking that’s bad for you, as small frequent meals are often encouraged by healthcare professionals to keep the metabolism running. What isn’t encouraged are the types of snacks we tend to eat. On the go pre-packaged solutions packed with carbs, sugars, artificial colours and flavours, as well as loads of ingredients we can barely pronounce. Plus, we are spending a fortune on these snacks to pay for the advertising and packaging for the product as opposed to the ingredients we are putting into our bodies.
Though you may not see any negative impacts in the immediate, over time our wallets, scales and medical bills will have something different to say. There are always healthy alternatives to snacking, but its up to us to make the effort to choose wisely. Snacks that have a little bit of everything – complex Carbs, proteins and fats – such as hummus and veggie sticks, or some crackers with a goats milk cheese are examples of healthy snack options.
Read on to learn more about our snacking habits and their affects.
[via pinterest]