Only 43.5% of French people take a snack break, according to a study by CREDOC (Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions). But this snack is not superfluous. It allows you to properly structure your food intake throughout the day, as explained by Doctor Alain Delabos, a nutritionist and author of “Mincir sur mesure thanks to chrono-nutrition” (editions Albin Michel) and of “La nouvelle chrono- illustrated nutrition ”(Hugo New Life editions).
What is the role of the snack?
Dr Alain Delabos. The snack should not represent a full meal, the third of the day, but constitute a relaxing break during which you recharge your batteries. This snack responds to a slight hypoglycemia due to an expenditure of energy generated by several hours of physical and / or intellectual activities carried out during the afternoon. This should not be ignored because it allows you to avoid unwanted snacking and light dinner in order to get quality sleep.
Which foods to favor?
Snack is the time of day when sweets are allowed, but you should not fall back on just anything. I strongly advise against industrial cereal bars sold at low prices in supermarkets because they are real nutritional disasters loaded with sugars and poor in nutrients. Despite their name as hyperprotein, they contain up to 55% sugar! The ideal snack should combine a fruit (or a derivative) and a vegetable fat. For example: a handful of raisins and the equivalent of a tablespoon of almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts. Or an apple sauce and a few black olives, or an avocado with a tablespoon of honey. All fruits are allowed, except the banana which is too sweet. Dairy products, as well as foods rich in protein and / or animal fats (yogurt, butter, cheese, cold meats, ice cream, etc.) are excluded because the body is not ready to receive them. On the other hand, it is possible to crack at the snack for some confectionery (3 candied chestnuts, 4 calissons or 4 Turkish delights) without causing too much damage.
Should you take your snack at a fixed time?
Absolutely not. Do not impose an immutable ritual of tasting at 4 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. It is not a “four hours” but a snack. It is therefore not the clock that should guide this food intake but the return of appetite, otherwise the calories ingested will not be used but stored, especially at the waist and hips. In many overweight people, the snack is in question because it is taken either too early or incompletely or because it is completely ignored.
* Carried out in 2018 on more than 1,100 representative people
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