“Snacking”, that is to say eating outside of meals, has become an everyday habit for more than a third of French people, according to a CREDOC study, revealed by Le Parisien. It starts in the morning (the famous coffee break) and it continues with the “snack break”, but it is especially with the “aperitif-dinner” that it increases. Yet snacking is the enemy of weight loss.
The Anglo-Saxons are the followers of permanent “snacking”. While one of the aspects of the “French paradox” is a balanced diet and above all divided into 3 meals, without nibbling, or “snacking”, afternoon tea or other “snack”.
But, this pernicious eating behavior is becoming a habit, according to a study by CREDOC (Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions), on more than 1,100 people and unveiled by our colleagues from the Parisian.
38% of French people “admit consuming at least one non-meal almost every day” (and 35%, two to 3 times a week). In addition, it is an increasing habit since this figure was 20 to 30% previously, according to several studies. Unlike the Anglo-Saxons who “snack” all day long, the French keep their 3 main meals a day, but they snack on top of that.
The French more and more adepts of snacking: “The risk is to destroy the meals”
Dr @BORYSJeanMichel, nutritionist endocrinologist, in The health magazine. # santef5 pic.twitter.com/OP84SUPJ5f
– Allodocteurs (@Allodocteurs) March 12, 2018
Permanent snacking
These new habits are spread throughout the day, with a coffee in the middle of the morning, between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., a hot coffee-like drink that is accompanied by cereals, sweet cookies, fruit, or even crisps. . The afternoon snack is even more frequent (43%) and seems mostly sweet (cereals, cookies, chocolate) with a hot drink. And we set off on an “aperitif dinner”, especially on weekends. Sometimes also a little drink before going to bed with a “little” chocolate.
The French are more and more fond of snacking: “Even if it means snacking on sweet things, it is better to do it in the afternoon” Dr @BORYSJeanMichel, nutritionist endocrinologist. # santef5 pic.twitter.com/4KfeaJooJg
– Allodocteurs (@Allodocteurs) March 12, 2018
Behaviors that increase the intake of calories and especially that disrupt the functioning of the hunger center in the brain and digestion. This snacking is in particular very bad for our intestinal flora, the “intestinal microbiota”, the composition of which changes in the event of anti-dietetic “snacking” and in the event of obesity.
Snacking is bad for your weight
No country, even the poorest, is immune to obesity. There are many explanations, but in industrialized countries, snacking is one of the main factors of obesity.
If you want to lose weight, you must of course eat less … but above all, you must continue to eat varied! Anyone who claims otherwise is lying. It is the tragedy of some dramatic diets which advise the consumption at will of only one category of food. This opens the door to deficiencies and especially to the “yo-yo” diet: I lose a little and I take back a lot.
Second absolute rule The easiest way to be sure to reduce intake is to absolutely prohibit snacking … It is a fact of our society: all those who are overweight snack. In front of television, in response to the solicitation of advertising or fast food signs. As soon as they get home, before collapsing in front of the screen, or between two programs, a visit to the refrigerator is the first reflex of “fat people”… Most often, standing and at an impressive speed.
Food: we nibble more and more, and from morning to night >> https://t.co/ucaFXESigi pic.twitter.com/jzWVpIrSDU
– Le Parisien Infog (@LeParisienInfog) March 11, 2018
Stop snacking and eat at a fixed time
To lose weight, you have to eat your meals at fixed times, but you can take 4 or even 5 meals! According to a study of 46,000 Finnish children, researchers found that eating “three meals plus two snacks a day” could reduce the risk in at-risk children.
Unfortunately, the food industry quickly understood the colossal economic stake represented by snacking. This market of the “fifth permanent meal”. Provide snackers with food that is easy to access and consume, if possible to meet our innate taste for sweetness and what gives our food flavor, fat.
Fat and sweet, you will recognize the chocolate bars, fruit jellies, micro cold cuts offered by all the supermarkets on monstrous shelves. These products are under the influence of fashion; which makes them formidable and difficult to fight.
Watch out for TV advertising
Another factor that comes into play, temptation and its major weapon: TV advertising, almost a permanent incentive to snack … Especially in children, by triggering an abnormal hunger signal, that is, say outside the usual rate of food intake. Sensation of hunger, craving, snacking: the vicious circle sets in. This, along with inactivity, is the main explanation for the obesity epidemic, particularly in childhood, which is raging in the United States.
When you find that snacking is too frequent, you have to organize what is called a “snack”. This is psychologically very important, because we then organize a real meal, which is much less guilty.
The more we wait the more we eat
In France, the school snack has practically disappeared. However, this study does not really call into question the strategy adopted. Indeed, if since 2004, the snack is no longer compulsory in schools, the instructions given were not the outright elimination of this little snack. On the other hand, schools which decide to maintain it must offer it to pupils upon their arrival at nursery or elementary school and, in any case, at least two hours before lunch. With as little sugar or fat as possible.
If you are suddenly hungry, you have to go eat something right away, because it’s a food compulsion that already has a certain gravity. When you are at this stage, you shouldn’t wait, because the more you wait, the more you eat! So, if you have cravings, you should plan a snack with a dietetic food (bread or cottage cheese), but you should not snack, and especially not chips or chocolate bars.
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