To Snack, or not to Snack?

My high school health teacher taught me that many people today have one of two views on healthy eating: eat three nutritious meals a day and have your last meal before seven at night, or eat three small-to medium-sized meals a day, and have two or three small, healthy snacks in between. Have you ever wondered if, in fact, snacking really is good for you, or the effects it could potentially have on your body? In a study done to test the effects that snacking can have on the body, the School of Psychology at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom aims to find some answers.  

There were 126 members in the first study, and all were asked to measure their snacking habits on “a 5-point scale with the following categories: Never; Less than once a week; once or twice a week; most days; and everyday” (Smith 47). Multiple questionnaires were given to the participants to measure their mental health, with subcategories being stress, depression, emotional distress, and anxiety (Smith 48). Results found that people who never snacked or only did so once a week had a higher mean score (9.07) than those who snacked everyday (7.27), meaning they were more likely to be depressed, stressed, etc. However, those who snacked most days had the lowest mean score of depression, with 6.86. The same pattern is evident for emotional distress, state anxiety, and perceived stress with those who never or rarely snacked having the highest numbers, and those who snacked everyday having the second lowest numbers. 

Participants were also shown a list of 20 words every 2 seconds, and asked to write down as many of the words they could remember, in no particular order. After, they were asked to press a response key whenever they saw a square appear in the box on a computer screen. They were also given statements about the order of letters A and B. They were asked to read the statements and decide if the statement was true or false, pressing the corresponding keys. Finally, the participants were shown 100 three digit numbers on the computer screen per minute, and had to detect repetitions that occurred every eight times per minute and respond as quickly as possible.  The results did not show any advantage to those who snacked more often to those who did not. Results varied with each test, with those in the “never/less than once a week” category having higher numbers than the others for three of the tests, those in the “once or twice a week” in one test, and those in “most days” in the other, and “everyday” never having the highest numbers for any of the tests. 

Another study was conducted, this time among young adults between the ages of 19-21 years, all living at home with their parents. The same questionnaires were given to these young adults, along with the same cognitive tests, and the results again showed “little evidence of significant associations between frequency of snacking, mental health and cognitive performance” (Smith 50). Numbers were scattered and varied from test to test and there was no consistency between the tests done with the adult participants and the young adult participants. 

Overall, it seems that snacking everyday is not better for every person, but can help in certain areas. Every person is different and will respond to snacking everyday differently than others, just as every person’s habits for eating healthy and balanced meals are different depending on the person. What should we take from this, then? If you are a snacker, it’s okay to keep snacking if that is what you prefer. Similarly, if you are a person who has three meals a day and no snacks, that is fine as well. Other factors play into mental illness and cognitive performance other than snacking, so do whatever makes you comfortable and what you are used to.

Works Cited

Smith, Andrew P. "Snacking Habit, Mental Health, and Cognitive Performance." Current Topics in Nutraceuticals Research 9.1 (2011): 47-51. ProQuest. Web. 14 May 2013.