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A quarter of people are undoing the benefits of healthy meals by unhealthy snacking
(www.eurekalert.org)
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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The article focuses on the weight/BMI of their subjects and how going too high leads to increased risk of many other health problems. Problematic snacks they list include cookies, cakes, pies, crisps, breakfast cereal.
Criticism: I have the same issue with the way this work is presented as I usually do when this topic comes up, and it's that there's no such thing as an inherently (un)healthy meal/snack. It's your diet as a whole that your body responds to, and dietary needs differ from one person to the next. For example, (considering only Calories since that's the focus of the article) if you consume too much during the day, that's not solely the fault of the cookie. Maybe you had a "healthy" salad for lunch, but if you reduced the amount of dressing used, that cookie would fit in perfectly fine.
Wikipedia defines snack as a small portion of food that is eaten between meals. The way I think about it, that is the only distinction between a meal and a snack. That "in between meals".
This, as far as weight goes, carries with it an inherent quality that makes regulating weight harder. If not impossible, depending on your sleep patterns (the etymology of the term breakfast indicates exactly how this is relevant to what I am saying here). It's nearly impossible to find snacks that have zero insulin response in your body. Insulin not only promotes energy storage, but it also prevents the body from using energy already stored. Making a habit of doing that, even when you don't face weight problems (which are related to health issues), is essentially making a habit of preventing your metabolism of using energy already stored from previous meals.
This is also probably the most important reason why people speak highly of intermittent fasting or low carb diets. Most of them, through these two approaches, regardless of the other positive/negative aspects, completely eliminate the habit of constantly spiking their insulin levels, effectively allowing the body to regulate energy levels through both the energy still available from a meal and the energy stored from previous meals.
It’s important to consider the impact and total volume of ultra processed foods, and the chemicals they contribute to the diet.
There’s increasing evidence that it’s not just a a matter of calorie equations or carb restriction overall that has effects.
Decades ago, research established that managing the glycemic load was more effective than just calorie counting for persons with diabetes.
15 years ago there was evidence building that diet drinks actually could contribute to metabolic problems.
Now studies looking at overall impacts of ultra processed foods suggest they mess up the gut micro biome or at best get taken up into energy much faster than expected.
The items listed in the article fall into the ultra processed category. The ‘everything in moderation’ approach may not be that successful when too much of the diet flips into the ultra processed categories.
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