The Science of The Snack Factor Diet
It’s as simple as this: Snacking helps you lose weight. Forget what you have heard about snacking causing weight gain. Research shows that nutrient dense snacks improve satiety.
When you snack properly, you will lose weight, improve energy, stabilize blood sugar levels, sharpen your mental skills and even prevent heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. A study from the medical school in South Africa measured it this way: One group of healthy men ate breakfast in a single meal, while another group was given the same identical meal, but at intervals throughout the morning. When both groups sat down to lunch, the snackers were less hungry and ate smaller lunches than the big-breakfast group. And even better, they felt just as satisfied as if they had eaten a high-calorie lunch.
Another study found that when a group of French adults ate 2.7 meals and 1.3 snacks each day, the satiety ratio was higher for the snacks. Other studies have also found that people who ate four meals a day had a better metabolic profile, with a reduction in the secretion of insulin, an improvement in insulin resistance, and better blood glucose control. In my book, The Snack Factor Diet, I write about the positive and proven benefits of snacking. Here are some of them:
Starving/Stuffing Cycle By getting people away from self-defeating habits of starving and stuffing themselves, snacking seems to shrink people’s stomachs. One study tracked obese people on a very low-calorie diet for four weeks and found a reduction in stomach size ranging from 27 to 36 percent. This could explain why people who eat smaller, more frequent meals, begin to feel more satisfied with less food over time.
Healthy Heart Research has also confirmed how snacking helps heart health. One clinical trial compared two groups of people eating the same diet. The first group ate six meals a day and the second group ate the same foods in irregular patterns, ranging from 6-9 meals a day. The smaller, more frequent meals resulted in lower LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff), by reducing cholesterol synthesis in the liver.
Routine Eating Another scientific benefit behind the snacking: it helps really busy people—the kind who tend to eat sporadically because of demanding jobs and crazy schedules—get into a regular eating routine. Research has proven that the kind of routine that will become second nature on the Snack Factor Diet makes it easier to consume fewer calories, burn more calories after you eat, and promote steadier insulin levels.
Better Mood The best thing about snacking is that it makes us happier! Researchers at the University of Wales divided a group of 150 women into three groups: one got no breakfast, one got a small breakfast and the third group got a large meal. After an hour and a half, half of each breakfast-eating group also got a snack. The snack group reported being in a better mood, were sharper mentally and did better on a word-recall task that researchers gave them.
The right nutrient-dense snacks, eaten at the right times, will keep your metabolism revved and will lead you to make wise food choices at all times. Here is a good snacking guide to get you started:
Kick Start Snacks (low calorie and satisfying to kick start weight loss) Asparagus Spears: Canned or fresh sprinkled with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and sea salt Cucumber salad: Cucumber slices tossed with 2 teaspoons of olive oil, lemon juice, and rice vinegar to taste Mexican dip: Red and yellow peppers to dip in avocado salsa (1/4 avocado mixed with 2 tablespoons jarred salsa)
On-The-Go Kick-Start Snacks Carrots and 10 almonds V8 juice and celery sticks Cherry tomatoes and one string cheese stick
Salty Snacks Pizzettes: Top 2 fiber crackers each with 1 tablespoon marinara sauce and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. Microwave for 15 seconds Turkey lettuce wraps: Two ounces turkey slices topped with 1 teaspoon chopped olives and rolled up in 1 romaine leaf One cup edamame, with sea salt and pepper
On-The-Go Salty Snacks Tamari almonds (20) Peanuts in shell (15) Snackmasters beef jerky (1 oz.)
Sweet Snacks “Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream”: ½ cup frozen pureed banana topped with 20 chopped peanuts “Apple Pie”: Small baked apple prepared with cinnamon and 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts Grilled Grapefruit: ½ grapefruit sprinkled with 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Broil for 1 minute
On-The-Go Sweet Snack ½ oz. dark chocolate
The point is very simple: as long as we do not consume more calories (energy) than we use up, and we only eat when we are hungry, it’s useful to split our total energy intake into as many nutrient-dense meals as our busy lives allow. And that’s exactly what The Snack Factor Diet will teach you how to do.
Join Keri for her latest member meeting, Snack Factor, on Tuesday, May 24 at 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. See you in the chat room!
Nationally recognized nutrition expert and published author Keri Glassman is the founder and president of Keri Glassman, Nutritious Life, a nutrition practice based in New York City. For years, Keri has been a leader in advancing a “whole person” approach to health and wellness. She has dedicated her career to creating services and promoting education through her “Nutritious Life” brand.
She has authored two books; the most recent is The O2 Diet. The Cutting Edge, Antioxidant-Based Program That Will Make You Healthy, Thin and Beautiful. (Rodale, December 2009.) This book translates complex scientific research on antioxidants and the ORAC scale into useful and useable tools that everyone can benefit from. It empowers people to live a more Nutritious Life by combining a nutrient dense, high antioxidant diet with the other components of the Nutritious Life Cycle. The O2 Diet follows the Snack Factor Diet, (Crown, 2007.)
Keri is a contributing editor and advisory board member for Women’s Health Magazine, and was the first registered dietitian to create a real food based snack bar, KeriBar. Additionally, Keri is the Nutrition and Health contributor for NBC’s LX New York, and is regularly featured on national television programs including The View, Dr. Oz, The Doctor’s, The Wendy Williams Show, NBC The Today Show, ABC Good Morning America, MSNBC and The Fox News Channel. Keri has a blog on AOL Health/That’s Fit, and writes a monthly newsletter for Ediets.com.
Keri resides in New York City with her husband Brett and their children, Rex and Maizy.
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Tags: Snack, Snack Factor