Snack Time?

When you hear the word ‘snack’, likely, and unfortunately, the image of some of the ultra refined garbage pictured above may show some of the things that come to mind.

Apparently Americans ate about 30 millions pounds of it on Superbowl Sunday.  Oh, my.

Definition: a small portion of food or drink or a light meal, especially one eaten between regular meals.

I beg to differ.  My view is that a snack and a meal is one in the same.  If you’re someone who needs 2,000 calories per day, for example, I think it makes more sense to have five, four-hundred calorie meals, each providing the perfect Paleo macro nutrient ratio (roughly 40% carbohydrate from fresh veg and some fruit, and 30% each of high quality protein and natural fat), and each eaten in a timely manner.

It’s simple.  If you eat a small meal every few hours, you avoid blood sugar surges and crashes, are, therefore, far less likely to reach for processed and sugary junk when you hit bottom, and you provide your body with nutritious, whole food in small doses.  

You won’t be stuffed and you won’t walk around hungry.

A balanced meal should leave you feeling satiated and energized, not so full that you need to be rolled into bed for a nap, nor still hungry to the point that you’re feeling dizzy and starry eyes.  Two extremes, yes, and we need a nice, happy balance on the middle ground.

Think of a snack as just another meal, and all meals as meals, rather than a breakfast meal with only certain foods that you’ll eat in the morning but not at other times of the day.

Food is either food (Paleo) or it’s not food (legumes, dairy & grains).

Eat food.  Don’t eat ‘not food’.