The anti-snack brigade are self-righteous, moralising nonsense-merchants.

Ahh ok I see. I get really anxious if I don't have a drink with me. I'm diabetic and the thirst can be horrendous sometimes. I drink loads.

Disposable water bottles though, sorry to the planet, nothing hits quite like really cold water with a sports cap.

Yup absolutely correct, both are completely uneccessary.

You're not being judged

But most people dont need anywhere near the levels of water they carry around all the time. Especially in these UK temperatures.

Also, most people are not as assiduous as they should be about cleaning water containers and the levels of bacteria they carry is not exactly healthy.

The "stay hydrated" mantra is over hyped, originally stimulated by bottled water companies, but has entered the consciousness of everyone.

On a recent flight I watched all the children fill 2-litre containers from a really slow water fountain once they got airside... for a 40 minute flight, followed.by a 40 minute coach ride. Some even filled two for themselves.
That's really OTT.

YABU because your specific calorie requirements allow you to eat snacks and lose weight.

Try being short or losing the last stone. Losing weight when you’re 6 stone overweight is easy. Try losing weight when your deficit level is 1300 cals!

Good question. I guess I would never eat a packet of biscuits or giant bag of crisps because they don't really form part of a meal.
Eat what I "want" to me means no food is excluded because of being fattening or unhealthy, nor would I be concerned with eating a lot at a meal if I was hungry.
What I wouldn't do, even if hungry, is eat a biscuit or cake mid morning or mid afternoon. Mainly because it would spoil my enjoyment of lunch or dinner.

this is all very boastful, did we really need your day menu. Could you not just have been honest 'Hey look what I eat in a day, aren't I doing well' without all this irrelevant snack commentary.

I prefer to spread my eating out through the day. I snack through the day and then have an evening meal. Works for me!

Yes, we did. Who said we didn't? I was countering your rather generalised (and accusatory) post, as one of the, you know, "older people". We snacked (not sure the term was used as a verb when I was a child though) though snacks were different, I suppose, and fewer. But yes, we sometimes had a between meals biscuit or some fruit.

Some people need to eat occasionally and others frequently and that’s just how people are

you are better eating healthy snacks than unhealthy UPF filled main meals

but people are weird and unable to see beyond their own noses

You say you can eat what you want, but do you actually only 'want' a pretty healthy diet? If eating what you wanted meant a packet of biscuits and a whole share bag of Kettle Chips, it wouldn't make a difference if you ate it at lunchtime alongside your usual meal, so technically not 'snacking', or if you ate it an hour later.

Sure…..tho I hate bananas soz 😊

I was just giving you examples as you found it impossible to imagine any kind of meal that included fruit 🤷‍♀️

Everyone has different needs! I eat constantly but I’m very active. I don’t think I often go more than 3 hours without eating something and generally go for toast/ sandwiches/ cheese and crackers between meals. Maybe it will hit me one day but for now it works. My kids are the same, sporty, slim things who constantly need fuelling. My parents on the other hand eat their meals and maybe the occasional biscuit if they’re in company. I grew up having a biscuit at school break time and crisps and fruit after school. I don’t really like crisps or biscuits now! I wish people could just do their thing and stop worrying about what other people think.

Why do people insist they never snacked and then go in to give examples of them /family/friends snacking?

Is there a different definition that I'm unaware of?

Well done for losing it.

You mention eating away your anxiety, was this from snacking in between meals?

The reason I ask, this may have been the cause of your weight gain and then this would fit into your friend’s mums argument.

.... So you did snack...

I'm in the anti snack camp but only because it works for me in the sense that my weight hasn't changed in 40 years, I can eat whatever I like and have never counted a calorie. The times in my life when I've changed these habits (breastfeeding mainly) I've put weight on.

I'm pretty greedy and enjoy my food but I also enjoy it better if I'm properly hungry. I get twitchy if I don't eat at very set times though.

Those who can eat small amounts spread through the day are not really the ones eating fattening snacks on top of large meals.

That's one person though, so you could just roll your eyes and forget. I only opened your thread because it came up in active, I don't look at any diet/weight loss boards, so maybe it's a thing on there? Of course, someone could be sat on their sofa shoving Pringles into their mouth, whilst posting rubbish about how others should eat.

I typically don’t eat things like sandwiches.

For lunch, I tend to eat pasta, chicken and rice, stir fry etc and then I don’t feel like eating anything afterwards.

And then I don’t typically eat desserts either.

So most of the fruit I get comes from snacking.

Who has mentioned "old people"? And how old is old?

My children have experienced roast chestnut sellers and they're in their 30s and 40s. Likewise, hot potato sellers.

I'm 70, so I'm guessing I qualify as old by your standards. A snack in my childhood home was a digestive biscuit during the morning. I wasn't expected to need a snack in the afternoon because I would have a had a school dinner. If I was desperate, I could have an apple or orange. People of my age were brought up by parents who had experienced rationing. My mother was 8 when World War 2 began but rationing went on for so long, it was still in existence when she married and didn't finish until my sister was 2. Offering us a biscuit or a piece of fruit was an act of love, not privation.

You forget that people were generally more active in former times, simply because they had to be. I had a four mile walk to school from the age of 5. My mother walked it 4 times a day because there was no alternative way of getting me there and back.