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

[SpangleTwangle]

My mate's very austere mother is like this. She goes on and on all the time about how people "never used to snack" and basically seems to believe that it is the sole reason why people are overweight and obese. It's also an angle people take on Mumsnet all the time and it is really bringing the eye-rolls from me.

Personally, I couldn't do without my snacks. All these people saying they don't need a snack must be sitting on their bottoms all day.

I do an active job (I don't sit down all day and I also run, walk, lift at work). I need my big bowl of porridge and banana for breakfast, my morning fruit snack at about 10 am (usually another banana) my work lunch (yesterday leftover chilli, salad, apple and orange). I get back at 4 or 5 depending, yesterday had 4 oat cakes and cheddar with chutney, then went to the pool with the kids to swim until 6, then I made our dinner which was white fish and bean stew, new potatoes, broccoli. I had a small piece of a cake I made at about 10pm. FYI I am also LOSING weight (6.5 stone so far, over 3 years), I write down everything I eat. Yesterday's calorie count was 1800, with 2 snacks.

The anti snack thing is just self righteous twaddle, you can spread your food out how you want, I find if I listen to my body and eat when I am hungry I am less likely to over eat, and if I hadn't had my oatcakes there is no way I would have managed taking the kid's swimming (they had a snack too, peanut butter on toast and bananas)

It's not about how often you eat, it's about how much you eat, how much exercise you get, and obviously what you're snacking on. But that said- I have gone through periods of time where those snacks were small bags of crisps/KitKat's etc and still lost weight as calories were equivalent.

AGREED 10000000%

Nobody becomes obese snacking on bananas or rice cakes. If you're active they keep your energy up.

It's when you're not active and are snacking on donuts that the problems start.

The anti snack brigade are often the anti carrying a bottle of water with you brigade too.

She didn't read any Orwell then?

How old are you?

It’s the snacking in addition to eating full meals that is a problem. It may not be a problem for you, but it’s the reason a lot of people are overweight. I lost 2 stone by cutting out all snacks and just eating at mealtimes.
Many children are given snacks all the time and they think it’s normal and have no concept of waiting until you are hungry to eat.

You are not wrong, but if snacking results in having more calories than needed then it can create problems.

I agree with what you're saying, but I also think there are people who snack just because it's habit or because they're bored, rather than because they're genuinely hungry and/or need a snack to fuel the next part of their day etc. I think in the end what it comes down to is that the diet advice that works for one person won't necessarily work for the next person, so we should all just butt out of what other people are eating or not eating!

I'm anti water bottle brigade but not anti snacking

I agree, both snackers and non snackers can be perfectly healthy and be eating the same amount of food overall in a day. To each their own, there isn't one right way.

Out of interest, why are you?

Your snacks and diet seem much healthier than most, though! You aren’t ploughing your way through a pack of chocolate hobnobs and a six-pack of crisps.

Agree. Three days a week my husband and I don't have an evening meal, for a range of reasons but what we do is eat throughout the day when we are hungry. And we've both said on those days we feel better in the sense that we haven't eaten set meals just because we think we ought to, instead we've eaten when hungry.
Our child is a gymnast and she would not survive without snacks 😂

I recently lost 6 stone on MJ.

It was dropping the incessant snacking that helped me reduce my calorie count. I went to 2/3 meals a day and no snacks.

So for some, snacking is bad. Your snacks I would not choose to eat. Hence the 6 stone to lose!

My snacks were crisps, chocs, and cake. Yum.

I'm middle-aged, seems irrelevant though. I had snacks as a child, always seemed to be a digestive biscuit, a sweaty banana pulled from my mother's handbag, or a bag of supermarket own-brand crisps. Also remember crumpets/ tea and toast straight after school. I don't think I knew anyone who didn't snack when they got home from school. Mate's mum is in her early 70s, she loves a good rant about this (and fat people in general, interestingly enough I wasn't party to these rants until I wasn't fat any more, she is quite sizest, love her though)

You snacking is perfectly healthy for you active lifestyle

Yes but the anti snack people OP is talking about are often just against the very idea of eating anything between meals. Whether it’s a chocolate bar or a banana, they seem to think it’s some sort of moral failing to not wait for the next meal.

You sound a little self righteous and judgy yourself OP.

I am 54. I had snacks throughout my childhood and was slim, and my kids have snacks now and are slim- but in menopause I find I can't eat chocolate amd crisps often as it goes to my waist. That's just me. I do eat them sometimes, just not often.

We were advised by the health visitor that our baby, now nearly 15 months old, should have two snacks a day, as well as her three regular meals. She is extremely active and definitely needs the energy boost! If it is medically recommended for a toddler then I can't imagine what possible harm healthy snacks could do to an adult, especially a very active one who will probably similarly benefit from energy boosts between meals.

Yeah I massively agree that it depends from person to person. I find personally waiting until I am really hungry/not snacking is when I personally over-eat. I also know people personally who eat very unhealthily and don't move a lot but are slim - again diets and metabolism vary.

If you don't snack and it works for you, more power to you but why go around acting like people who do are awful and by extension they are terrible parents, condemning their children to unhealthy lives by letting them have a snack...

I'm making healthier choices now but I did pile on an extra 7 stone in over-weight during COVID and after having my babies. For me probably the biggest factor was lack of exercise but I was also over-eating. I've only half a stone more to lose to get back to a healthy weight, I have learned a lot about diet and nutrition over the last 3 years, but the simplest take-home message is calories in, calories out. You'd be sad and unhealthy living on 3 mars bars a day, with 3 funsize ones for snacks and 3 cups of sugared tea and nothing else, but you'd still probably lose weight.

What are the traditional elevenses but a morning snack? Afternoon tea and a biccie - also a snack. Some people do better with them and some without.

I went on holiday with a friend and she really did have to eat little and often, which meant snacks as well. I'm more of a three square meals person and don't normally need to snack unless having a very physically demanding day.

haha! My mum and aunts love to complain about fat people and snacking but they also snack every day! They just happen to be teeny tiny. They all have a scone or biscuit with a cup of tea midafternoon every day without fail!

On weekdays I have breakfast at 6:15, lunch at 11:30, dinner at 6:30pm. I usually have a snack (peanut butter and apple, oatcakes and hummus) between 3 and 4pm otherwise I would overeat at dinner.

There is a faintly judgemental and critical tone to your posts. It’s often people who were overweight and then become slim, that become almost evangelical about food/diet and condemn other people’s food choices and eating patterns.

Why are you anti water bottles @OhFuckyNell?

I think it depends. There's snacking and snacking. Having a piece of fruit and a handful of nuts because you're ravenous part way through a long bike ride or hike is very different to eating half a packet of chocolate digestives with a cup of tea whilst watching tv or giving your kids a snack to keep them quiet when they are bored.
I have been known to do all of the above and I know the second two are not good. But even then, once in a while they aren't that bad! It's about balance. Something unhealthy done every now and again isn't going to make you obese, but if it is a daily or almost daily occurrence it can certainly contribute. And as well as the actual food consumed I think that eating to combat boredom, unhappiness, stress etc can be a very hard habit to break and lead to longer term problems. Snacking because you are genuinely burning more calories than your meals provide and you are hungry is of course fine. In fact if you are very active it is probably better that you have smaller, more frequent meals than fewer big ones. But emotional snacking or habit snacking are probably best avoided as far as possible.

I’m genuinely a cow when I’m hungry (had my blood checked, there’s no underlying medical condition I think I’m just a bitch) so I always have snacks on hand. My mother was always very anti snack and you could tell because as we approached meal times she would get snippy. If you wanted something or wanted a friend over you always had to ask after she had eaten.