By Rita R. Robison
About 97 percent of American adults snack between meals. Now, almost one-quarter of the calories consumers eat come from snacks.
Unfortunately, the calorie count and size of snacks have grown over the years. Snacking often sabotages any attempt to lose weight – or keep it off.
AARP offers these tips for reducing the impact snacks have on consumers’ weight:
1. Snack throughout the day. People who lose weight and keep it off don’t skip meals or wait until they’re ravenously hungry before they eat, says Lawrence Cheskin, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in Baltimore. “If you spread your calories throughout the day, your blood sugar won’t fall and you won’t feel hungry,” Cheskin says.
2. Timing matters. Women who snack between breakfast and lunch lose less weight than those who don’t, a study in the December Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports. Many people eat out of habit, rather than to satisfy real hunger. These mid-morning snackers might be among that group, says the senior author of the study, Anne McTiernan, M.D., director of the Prevention Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. Mid-morning snackers also reach for more snacks during the day than the women who are more successful at losing weight.
3. Go nuts. Nuts “are one of the healthiest snacks around,” says Donald Hensrud, M.D., a preventive medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “They’re not digested quickly, so they help you feel full longer. Some studies show that overall calories don’t go up by much if you add nuts to a diet, because people seem to eat fewer calories from other sources.” Don’t eat too many. A small handful will tide you over until your next meal.
4. Plan ahead. “Before you turn in for the night, cut up some carrot, celery, and cucumber sticks, pack them in a snack-size plastic bag and refrigerate,” recommends Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University. Take the bag with you when you go out in the morning, and you’ll have a snack ready when hunger strikes.
5. Prepack your portions. Don’t be store big boxes of snacks in the cupboard as soon as you get home from shopping. “Instead, count out 100 calories’ worth of crackers or pretzels, and store each serving in a small plastic bag,” says Rena Wing, a Brown University professor of psychiatry and director of the Weight Control and Diabetes Clinic at Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I. Recycle the empty and grab a single serving when you need a snack.
6. Sip your food. Foods with lots of water fill you up on fewer calories, so try a broth-based vegetable soup as a snack, advises Rolls. “If you don’t want to fuss, buy heat-and-eat soup,” she says, “or make a big pot of broth filled with vegetables, pack it into single-serve containers, label, and freeze.” Microwave one when you’re ready for a snack.
7. Pay attention when eating your snack. To avoid mindless eating, concentrate on your food, says Cheskin. “It’s incredibly easy to overeat when you’re distracted,” he says. Turn off the television, close your book, forget the crossword puzzle, and give your attention to your food.
8. Consider calcium. Consumers need more calcium after age 50, and snacking on fat-free dairy provides a good way to get more of this mineral without loading up on calories, says Rolls. Use a blender to create a smoothie with nonfat milk or yogurt, a banana, frozen fruit, and ice cubes.
9. Focus on protein. Calorie for calorie, protein is the most satisfying food, fat the least satisfying, says Cheskin. “A lot of people believe that fatty foods are filling. They are, but only if you eat 1,000 calories worth. If you eat an equal amount of calories, then 200 calories of roast chicken breast will be a lot more filling than three one-inch cubes of Cheddar cheese.” Try some peanut butter on whole-grain crackers or a small serving of low-fat cottage cheese.
10. Drink good beverages. Beverages are excellent snacks, says McTiernan, “but make sure to avoid sugary drinks.” Coffee, tea, and water are fine; if you add sugary syrup and whipped cream to a low-fat latte, it’s no longer a low-calorie drink. “And rather than drinking fruit juice, which contains a lot of sugar, opt for the whole fruit, which contains fiber that helps you feel full.”
For more information for boomer consumers, see my blog The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.