Extra Healthy-ishA nutritionist's take on snacking (like, is it bad or good?)
Are snacks bad or good for your health - or both? Nutritionist, health scientist and media commentator Kristen Beck helps listeners get their unconscious snacking under control.
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Hey, maare welcome to Extra Healthy Ish, the Big sister podcast to Healthy Ish. Both podcasts are from Body and Soul with me your host Felicity Harley, and I am in Canada today, Yes, coming to you from the beautiful mountains of Whistler or the mountains surrounding Whistler. I should say, my sister lives here and I've come to help her with her new baby. But today we are talking about snacking. What do you like with you snacking?
Oh?
I tell you what.
The pandemic ruined it for me. I'm always in the cupboards searching for something to eat between meals. And so is it a bad thing? Is snacking good or bad for our health? Or is it just something we kind of need to get under control, so to speak. Well, nutritionist, hell scientist and media commentator Kristen Beck is here to discuss it all. Kristin, and thank you for joining us. And you're just about off on a holiday. Thank you for fitting us in.
You're very very welcome and yes I'm super excited.
Oh now, before we start, I have to ask you how do you stay extra healthy in your life?
Oh? I love that question.
I'm in my forties now and I would say it's realistically more and more just tapping into what makes me feel good, you know.
Really, just even.
Though I've been a nutritionist for over twenty years and I've got all the qualifications and have studied continuously, it's really tapping into the food I ate, the exercise I do.
You know, everyone's path, everyone's diet.
Is different, and it's really for me just getting much much wiser in what actually makes me happy and healthy and feel good longer term, so you know. And the other thing is as a nutritionist, I do feel like it goes part part and parcel with the job. I do have to look healthy, you know, look and feel healthy.
Yeah, you want to feel good?
What do you just quickly, what's your kind of favorite go to snack and your favorite go to exercise that you've kind of worked out over the years makes you happy?
Yeah? Absolutely so definitely.
In terms of my favorite go to snack, it's actually I've got two and they're actually more like mini meals rather than snacks.
So I'd probably want to develop this a bit more as we talk, But.
You know, what a snack actually is doesn't just have to be a snack, you know what I mean? A packet that someone sees this is now a snack, so a small meal is going to be you know something. My two favorites are either avocado and whole grain toast because that's an ideally with an you know, even with an egg depending you know, so it mini meals like just a small piece of whole grain toast, a little bit of avocado for some healthy fats and also some you know, an egg for pro change, super super easy.
And the other one is just oats, so just oatmeal with some you know, as in you know, little oats with some milk.
And maybe some L s A and honey and just you know, and that those are both meals that will.
Fill you up. But they're mini meals rather than snacks.
And I think so many of us are actually working from home more or even in the you know, they're not obviously the egg you know, eggs a bit hard, but that these are not hard meals or snacks to put together even in the office kitchen.
Yeah, now, before we just quickly exercise, what's your favorite exercise?
Because you did mention that was the other thing that.
I am a runner. So I've always been a runner, but I am a runner on the beach. So I am an ocean runner, so I run on the sand.
I'm super lucky, I you know, and I do do my gratitude journal, but every single day I run on the run on the beach, and that's that's what makes me happy. I run with the seagulls and if it rains, you know, rains cold, but.
That's what makes me happy.
I like that.
Okay, from seagulls to snacking, let's get back to those. No, that was my question, I ask you that. Okay, let's talk about snacking now. The main reasons we snack. I mean, we all know this, tell us what they are so we can all go, yep, that's.
Me, that is me.
Look, you know, in terms of snacking, you know, we do need to remember that we came from like a hunter gatherer kind of concept where you had to go out and get the food. And we are in each situation now where you know, our whole life is.
You know, there are so many external cues to eat.
You know, whether you're on on your Instagram feed, everyone's got healthy bowls.
Healthy this.
You know, even if it's healthy food, there's so many messages, you know, ads everything, Like you.
Walk out the door, and I feel like there's snacks everywhere.
Snacks everywhere you go, everything you know, and it's like there's just you know, food available all day, every day wherever we go. So it is very easy to kind of lose that what you know, and what we call anate taste, anate hunger preference, a hunger where you're actually going you know, are you actually hungry?
If you are?
You know, I'm a big believer you should never really if you are truly hungry, you should eat.
But you know, it's like, just take that breath and go, am I actually hungry? Do I need to eat? And also could I make a wiser choice?
And it's fine, you know even if you go I could, but I'm not going to because but it's even just that mindfulness of going you know what's healthier?
Because for me as a nutritionist, I always laugh as people I need to talk to you and I go, you probably don't really because you know what's healthy?
Just take that, you know that one second to go do I need to eat this?
Or could I make it somehow a little bit healthier?
So is it good or bad for our health?
Or is it just I mean, are you pro snacking or not, or it just comes down to the types of snacks we choose exactly.
So it's really you know, if you are eating great quality snacks and you know, what's the snack anyway? I mean, I guess you know, when we think about three meals, you know that sort of set three meals a day.
Who said that we should be adding three meals a day? There's you know, in summer we've got longer days, in winter we've got shorter days. You know, who actually ever dictated there should be three meals per day?
For me? Personally?
You know, I am more a I've worked out as a set of older, older, and hopefully wiser. I probably eat maybe four small, four to five small small meals, but they.
Are quite nutritious meals, so you.
Know, you know, just smaller portions and that tends to keep me happier and healthier. But the problem is if you are having you know, really large meals and probably coming back to when you are either serving stuff up for yourself, you know, or you are even going to say, you know, go and get like even healthy bowls and wraps and those sorts of things.
They are really big servings. Like when I say I eat four or five meals per day. There's small servings. They're like a cup size.
Or something like that, and that makes makes me feel a lot healthier and calmer. As I said, a lot of my nutrition really eat and what I eat personally now has more got more to do with just keeping my stress levels under control.
I'm a much nicer person when I've eaten.
But yeah, they are small meals. They are not you know we so you're not then holing into larger meals. So for me personally, I find that, you know, if you're eating a smaller meal, you know, so I'll sort of have maybe nine o'clock, then eleven, twelve o'clock, then maybe three o'clock, then maybe six o'clock, you know, have a smallish meal.
And not being you know, it's safe.
For example, they are, yes, so if.
You're having that and then having snacks, you are going to absolutely blow out your killer duels.
We'll be back after this short break with more from Kristin. Is it amount of just okay, looking at what I have during the day and thinking does three main meals work better for me? Or five smaller ones or seven even smaller ones? What is works best for my metabolism because you know that often, you know, I personally, I'll get to three.
And I'm ravenous, and I'm like, right, I need to eat. What am I going to eat?
Yeah?
Exactly, Especially the afternoon. That's the killer time for me, even personally. And I mean I have three teenage kids who you know still come in and they just eat and they're eating, so you know, I'm like, oh my god, I need to know, so I will actually almost you know, since lockdown we've got posts, you know, lockdown being at home anyway, but you know where almost we're having almost cooked dinner earlier simply because I would rather fill up on you know what I mean, something nutritious and dinner wise earlier in the afternoon three four five o'clock and then even maybe have you know, something a bit healthy later on rather than so, you know, but that three four five o'clock time is really for me personally, and like you.
Said, is the time when I'm actually the most ravenous.
And it's like, you know, even like I'm always going to tell you to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, but that's not going to be enough at three or four or five in the afternoon. You need healthy fats, you need protein, et cetera. So you know, that's when you should be looking for those mini meals, things like avocado or toast or you know, or even just mini early dinner kind of thing or break break it up even into sort of two sittings of dinner.
But they do have to be smaller meals.
So was our mum right?
Does snacking ruin your appetite if you snack at five and then have dinner at six thirty or seven?
Yeah, look, you know it does. It does. So the thing is that you but you.
Know, I hate to say, Mum's right, but in terms of you know, the trick there is to just make sure those snacks that you're having, and when my kids were littler, you know, just making.
Sure that the food that you're eating when they come into the house and even for me personally, is still healthy. Because snacking is fine as long as what you're snacking on is actually going to contribute to your nutritional intakes.
So actually that's a great point.
Yeah, so it's not you know, is it a snack? Is it not? But if you're having some protein and some healthy fats and some.
Complex carbohydrates that are.
Going to do two things.
They're going to help you, help you get to your nutritional requirements, but they're also going to stop you from over eating.
So say, if you don't snack in the afternoon, when you do get to that meal at six or seven, you are going to hoe in. You're going to eat a whole lot more than you would have if you'd have had that smaller snack at three, four, five o'clock.
So what are some of your top tips for healthy snacking, foods that you know go to foods for snacks and foods we should stay away from.
Realistically, the most important thing is from a nutritional standpoint, is getting our vegetables into your diet. So if you can get vegetables into your snacks, then look at it as an opportunity. There should be absolutely no guilt around vegetables because only five percent of Australians even reach their nutritional requirements for vegetables.
Yeah, which is astonishing, And.
Probably even then I question whether or not those people really do because it's a lot of vegetables you're looking at half to one.
You know, cup is one serving. You eat five servings a day.
Even when I'm chopping and eating all vegetables and things all day. I don't always necessarily eat five servings and vegetables per day, and that's my job. So if you can, you know, even you don't just have to eat carrots or you know, I mean, carrots are great, and celery stricks and things are great, but anything with vegetables in it is going to be good. Okay, same for fruit only you know, half of us eat eat just grabbing fruits, so those sorts of things, but fruits and vegetables are great for you, and you should be using that as part of your snack. But from especially in the after noon, the three four, five o'clock stage, you are going to need at least some nuts or some you know, some whole grain toast with some avocado on it, or you know that have some healthy fats that's going to actually be more satisfying, or even maybe like a little you know, an egg or something like that that's going to just give you some protein, some healthy fats, something and some whole grain cereals that will actually fill you up as well, because those fruit and vegetables should be part of it, but you know, team it up with something that's got some protein and some healthy fats in.
That instead of the chips and the biscuits and the muffins. And we know, don't we now tell me what if what this question probably comes from me personally? What about if this next question I would have to put my hand up and say this is me personally. What about if we walk into a convenience or a petrol station, excuse me, and it's four o'clock. You are, you know, on the way home from work, you're ravenous, you've got kids in the car. What would you recommend?
Okay, basically I hate to say it, but you know, if don't go anywhere near anything that's actually labeled you know, Okay, so obviously you're going to avoid you know, I mean the burger rings and the chips and the chocolate.
And that's you know, we know that.
But also just try to try to get past even that anything that's almost labeled as a snack, because anything that you know, some you know that people have actually started labeling as snacks is probably either going to have more sugar, more more unhealthy inflammatory fats, et cetera. Than if you were to actually just even go and grab yourself, you know, a banana and some almonds or something from the you know, which is you know, even even you know, the convenience stores and stuff tend to have, you know, and then might not be the freshest, but you know, an apple or a banana or something still healthier, but grab yourself some nuts or something as well to go with it. And the other thing that you know, you might want to have a look at is even just you know, depending on how fresh they look. But you know, even just like a small sandwich or something like that at four o'clock, because even still like a small sandwich is actually almost into a snack these days of the size of the meals that we're eating. So if there's something with some healthy protein and things on there, on some whole grain bread, that would be a good meal that will give you some fiber, some carbohydrates, and will also keep you karma. So then when you actually, like you said, when you get home and you're starving and you've got kids and you know, yelling and screaming, you're going to be in a better mindset to you know, choose.
A healthier Absolutely.
What about if we're trying to manage our weight, I mean, what should we do with the whole snacking thing.
Look, snacking, I think again for me, for me personally, and the way my premise of how I practice nutrition is that short term, you're going to be looking at a situation where people always want quick results, you know, so it's like, oh, you know, I just started eating these meals per day, you know, and I got this result, et cetera. But if you are hungry in between, it's good to get yourself, you know, to be comfortable with the eye. You know, we should as we are exposed to so many food cues, so you know, it's good to consider how hungry you are. But as a nutritious I would never ever tell anyone if they were truly hungry not to eat. It's a matter of, okay, are you going to make a wise decision now, even just grabbing yourself an apple or even grabbing a carrot or something like that before you go out to the shops, or even if you're going out to dinner and you know that you are already hungry, you don't want to you know, like, if you don't want to overeat, just grab yourself something healthier.
At that point I always just remember.
And you know, it's just silly little TV, you know, it got to But there was a scene on the Biggest Loser about ten years ago and this contestant was, you know, getting yelled at because she'd gotten hungry in the night and she ate a mandarin and then the trainers were yelling at it. She ate the mandarin and I'm going and I'm thinking, oh my god, it's the total opposite of it, you know, like I'm like, you should be celebrating them back.
Absolutely well, thank god that was ten years ago in that show.
No longer. Really it was a long time ago, but I remember, what are we? What are we? You know, what messages are we sending? So it was definitely a lot.
Now just finally, you're about to jump on a plane.
What sort of what do you do when you go on a flight or how do you manage the whole eating and snacking thing.
Look, I am a big fan of obviously hydration. We you know, in terms you know, I'm in my forties. I need to worry about wrinkles and things too.
But hydration is key. But also again I do try to carry on the same routine in terms of making sure in particular when you fly plenty of fiber because it does actually dehydrate you and you are going to be often. You know, I'm only going to Bali, so it's only a couple of hours away.
But in terms of body clocks and things, jet lag, et cetera, constipation's not fun for anybody, and flying doesn't help. And as you know, you're on different planes and things. So if you can eat plenty of high high fiber foods, so and lots of you know, and there are so many more healthy fresh options even at the airports and things now where you can get snacks and wraps and bowls.
And those sorts of things. But also, don't be afraid.
I'm traveling with my kids, but those great big meals, you know, they are look up.
You know. My two older boys are massive and they can eat those sort of things. But I'll probably split something with my daughter, who is you know, she's a teenager and she's much much smaller. She's smaller than I am. We only need to eat a small snack rag regularly.
But yeah, lots of lots of fiber would be my key for getting there happily and healthily.
Well, have a wonderful time in Balley, and thank you for joining us on.
Extra Healthy Ish.
Thanks feliciting.
I don't know about you, but Kristen made me feel a lot better about my snacking habits, just making them healthy, healthier and perhaps having smaller meals around it. I like those tips anyway. If you want more from us, remember Extra Healthy Ish this podcast. We drop a new episode for your wonderfully healthy ears every morning Monday to Thursday. For more, head to bodyansoul dot com dot you, or join the Conversation of ebody and Soul on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.
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