Snacking

Like many moms with young children, I used to eat snacks regularly, twice a day or whenever my children needed one.  At the time I was eating every 2-3 hours, even when I didn’t feel hungry.  I was eating to prevent myself from reaching to a state of dizziness and shakiness.  Since my grandfather used to feel shaky if he became too hungry, I thought that was genetic even though in the back of my mind I knew something was wrong.  Besides, I heard recommendation that people should eat every 2-3 hours to keep their metabolism going, so I just keep on snacking away.

 

After I paid more attention to my diet and added in exercise regime to my life, my fasting blood sugar was out of the danger zone, lowering from 102 to the mid-80s.  I experience less and less shakiness after 4 hours of not eating.  Then I read some information from Dr. Ritamarie about meal spacing, arguing against eating every 2-3 hours, http://drritamarie.com/blog/2013/08/06/the-myth-behind-small-frequent-meals-encore-presentation/  I learned that by snacking every 2-3 hours, you are causing insulin in your blood stayed elevated all the time because they are needed to transport the blood glucose from the food that you eat to your cells.  When your insulin is elevated, your growth hormones are inhibited.  Why is that undesirable?  Well, your growth hormones are in charge of burning fat, repairing your body, and building lean muscles after exercise.  With insulin running wild in your blood, you won’t go far with your exercise and weight loss plan. 

 

Just as with the multitude of conflicting information we read online regarding health, I was confused and not sure whether to snack or not.  It would be easy for me to keep on snacking because…. who doesn’t like to snack, right?  Yet, I want to do what’s necessary to take good care of my body.  Then I recalled when my mom visited us in the summer, I was surprised to find out that she didn’t snack at all.  She eats 3 meals a day and that is that.  There is no mid morning snack or afternoon snack.  Looking back to my childhood, I remember that I only ate one snack a day and that was after school, before dinner was ready, because our dinner usually didn’t start until 7pm.  Even during high school year, the so called “teenage growth spurt” period, I don’t remember ever having snacks at school.  I guess we had big meals so there was no need to snack anytime of the day.  In the end, I decide to listen to my body and Dr. Ritamarie.  I try not to eat if I don’t feel hungry and, therefore, lengthen the time in between eating to 4-5 hours.  I eat bigger lunch than I used to so I don’t need to eat until 6 pm.  If I want to eat out of boredom, I do a quick round of exercise (yoga stretching or bodyweight exercise).  That usually takes away my craving for snacks.  What do you think, snack or no snack?