Establishing The Relation Between Snacking And Body Weight

Establishing The Relation Between Snacking And Body Weight: Among the Americans the “three square meals” tradition may have grown from the Old World custom of the 20th century, but in this day and time all consumers love to snack every now and then. In fact, research says that over the past four decades more American citizens have traded in their meals for snacks.

Establishing The Relation Between Snacking And Body Weight

However, science says something more than that. It says that more than love for snacks it the need for it. Today’s world is fast and demanding and people have to work more than before. This result in more loss of energy that their ‘three square meals cannot readily and fully provide. It is for this reason they now have to resort to frequent snacking to regain their lost energy and continue to work.

• It is found through different studies that between meals snacks can provide nothing less than one-quarter of the daily supplies of calories to the body. No doubt snacks have earned the status of “fourth meal” now.
• What is more, there has been a significant rise noticed in the daily intake of calories of men and women since the late 1970s. Ideally, the majority of these extra calories are provided by the meals consumed by them but still there is a significant deficit in the calorie requirements. This is why they need to snack more now than before.
• According to a 2011 report from the US Department of Agriculture it is claimed that Americans snack twice as often as they did way back in the late 1970s.
• There are also several other newer analyses of the similar data that suggests that while the frequency of snacking has remained the same, the total calories consumption has increased significantly.

These study reports have pointed out towards one thing that experts are concerned of and that is if and how snacking affects the health of the consumer. They are now trying to find out whether snacking affects the body weight of the consumer or cause any other health concerns.

Reasons to snack and how

It is important to know first the reason people snack and then focus on how they snack to arrive at a final conclusion. Different experts have different opinions about the reasons people snack.

• Some say that people take snacks between meals just because they have this vague notion that frequent eating is healthful
• Few others report that people resorts to snacking just to satisfy their cravings for salty or sweet foods.

There are others as well who believe that people snack quite often for a multiple of reasons that includes:

• It helps to prevent or relieve hunger
• It helps them to control body weight gain or loss
• It boosts nutrient intakes
• It revs up their metabolic rates
• It also helps people to replace meals when they are very busy at their work
• It helps to cope up with unsettling emotions and
• Few even snack simply to pass the time.

According to the 2014 Nielsen report it is found that 41% of the North American respondents preferred snacks instead of having dinner at least once in a month. The report also suggested that these respondents mostly resorted to chocolate, chips, and cheese as their snacking item.

• There are other studies that indicated fresh fruit is also a very popular snack item among the American respondents wherein about 55% of all the survey respondents reported to have eaten fresh fruit as a snack at least once in the past 30 days.
• Another separate study found that adolescents who snacked most frequently are the ones that are most likely to skip their meals.

The on-the-go lifestyle of today has made the people to snack more than have meals. However, it is also found through further research that frequent snacking or ‘all day grazing’ as it is called instead of having properly structured meals and even snacks may have some serious side effects to the body.

Snack and weight

Science has also proved that improper snacking ma affect body weight. Therefore, next time you order for snacks delivery consider what you order and also these following facts.

It is true that snacking may help you to control your appetite but it may also contribute to recreational eating which is result in excess calories in take. Opposing as it may see, research however supports both these views and found that:

• Early in the 1960s people who ate the least number of times during the day often had the highest amount of extra body weight. This fact and finding led several health professionals to recommend the practice of frequent snacking as a tool to lose body weight.
• However, more recent researches and studies have challenged that old idea of frequent eating helps in weight control. These modern researchers suggest that there is an extensively recognized issue in diet studies which is underreporting of food and calorie intake by some of the participants.

It was found that when the suspected data of the people was removed by the researchers it pointed out the faulty information and stats. On further analysis it was found that the more often a person ate, the higher would be the Body Mass Index of him or her.

A few Spanish researchers have also found that people who believe that they snack as usual are most likely to add significant amount of weight. This was supported with their 4½-year follow-up period during the study. In addition to that, the study suggested that these people are more than 70% more expected to become overweight.

If you thought girls, especially teen girls, are less likely to become obese then tarry a little and read on till you reach the end of the article to be sure. When it comes to teen girls eating frequently, it was found that in the commencement of the study that they are expected to have less body fat a decade later.

Therefore, snack more. It is good for health and body weight. Just make sure you time your snack well and eat only healthy food.