Good for you, bad for you: snacking

By Amy Johnson

Thursday, September 10, 2009

It’s that time of night we all dread. We had dinner a long time ago, but we have a long time until breakfast. Taco Bell even has its own name for it: Fourth Meal, the late-night hankering for more food. Is late night snacking making us pack on the pounds, or are we simply satisfying our cravings?

 Staci Hendrickson, registered dietician at Healthy Balance, 535 Gateway Drive, says as long as people don’t go over the total calories they should be eating in a day, it doesn’t really matter what time of day they eat. Hendrickson says the problem most people have with late-night snacking is they eat while watching TV or trying to stay up and study and are just adding extra calories on top of what they’ve already eaten throughout the day.

 “It’s all in how you’re doing it,” Hendrickson says. “If you’re just doing that snacking and you’re not really hungry then your body doesn’t really need it, but if you’re actually hungry and you maybe didn’t get to eat dinner, then you need to eat.”

 To avoid the past-midnight fast food line, combine drinking water with eating snacks high in fiber, such as whole-grain crackers, whole-grain cereals or popcorn, which Hendrickson says is very filling but doesn’t have a lot of calories as long as it isn’t loaded with butter. If it’s your sweet tooth that is nagging you, Hendrickson says drinking sugar-free hot cocoa can be a good strategy for quieting the craving without the extra calories.

Verdict: Good for you

As long as you stick to healthy snacks and only eat when you’re actually hungry

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