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.

Yes we all judge, absolutely, and I judge those who judge people for their eating habits and their weight most harshly of all. Anyone, though, who says they are not judging is full of hot air.

I do find it quite odd though that I post about a day of healthy eating with snacks, and without casting a single judgement, am accused of being judgemental. Like simply by having a diet that is medically healthy for me, I am accused of both judging, and of trying to tell other people what to do. It's quite astonishing, and was never what this post was about, was never insinuated anywhere.

This! Not sure why we needed the minutia of your daily diet either. If you need reassurance & complimenting on what you eat then that signifies a very unhealthy relationship with food.

You do realise that this site is anonymous don’t you? I’m sure you’re not the only one in the entire UK who does your job! 😆

But your snacks are healthy, so it is not an issue.

People who eat crisps, cakes, sweets and similar rubbish between meals will end up putting on weight. It is just common sense, not self righteousness...

It's cumulative. You mention something on one thread, something else on another...

Oh give over.

I mean yes and no. Previous to medical issues, whilst losing a large amount of weight over the last 3 years, my snacks were sometimes a bag of multipack crisps, small KitKat style bars, etc. Portion controlled but hardly healthy. Made no difference to weight loss (but unfortunately was quietly catching up with me in other ways, because surprise it's not all about waistlines)

On some days I've done 20,000+ steps then done an hour's spin class. I have on those days done so much exercise I could literally eat an extra small meal, nevermind a snack.