Nourish With Intent: Snacking

Good morning, Cadre family. Happy Saturday. Cheers. If you're also drinking coffee with me, I hope everyone's having a wonderful morning so far. If you were here earlier, I think you saw jc if you stick around a little later, you'll have a live from Dan this morning. Good morning. Good morning. I Morning. Speak Wonder wanted to spend today talking a little bit about snacking as that's something that has been coming up in a couple of my sessions this week with clients and I think that snacking from when I'm working with people on is really getting a bad rep.

C. good morning. Good to see everyone. I also see some new names in here as well. So if you haven't been here before. Hi, I'm Kristen. I'm a registered dietitian based out of Denver and I primarily work with clients through a non diet or intuitive eating lens. So looking at how to manage different medical conditions without damaging or even improving your relationship with food. Speak Wonder. The sun is shining. Eerie. I have heard the weather out east has been a little, a little frigid. So I'm happy for you.

The sun is here as well. We got like 5 inches of snow, 6 inches of snow yesterday and it's almost gone already, which is wild. I'm so glad you are all here. Luke, Jules. Oh yay. We have a full house. I'm so. That makes me so happy. I love it. As I said, I want to talk about snacking. I think that snacking. Favorite snack, pretzels. I. I'm with you. Dot's pretzels. Great Pretzel thins. I also really love those. The. The concern that I heard this week that was coming up. Yeah. Everyone follow Luke's lead and drop your favorite snack.

The concerns that I was working with people on this morning or this week was that concept that I can't snack because I'm going to ruin my next meal. Right. I can't have an afternoon snack because it's going to ruin my dinner. And I wanted to talk about this a little bit because I think that it's not. It wasn't a unique idea to this client of mine. I am certain I probably heard that growing up at some point and I just want to reframe that a little bit. Snacking can be first of all totally up to you and your needs and what you want.

But if you are wanting to snack, if you're finding yourself having breakfast and then lunch and then it gets to be middle of the day and you are starting to feel pretty hungry, getting a little irritable you are frustrated with what you're working on, struggling to focus. Right. All of these kind of symptoms of hunger. There's nothing wrong with eating a snack. And rather than framing it as ruining dinner because you might not be as hungry, right? That's okay. You don't have to eat a full plate every time you sit down for a meal.

You might eat a little less at dinner. If you're eating a snack, that's okay. You might eat dinner a little bit later. That's okay. There's no rules about timing that you have to be following. Dinner might even look different. Maybe you were gonna make something more involved or elaborate and you had a snack and you were like, maybe my mind's changed about what I actually want for dinner. Right. So it might impact dinner or shift dinner. But I would argue it's not going to ruin your dinner. But what it will do is improve your afternoon.

If you are feeling irritable, tired, frustrated with the people around you, not really being able to focus on what you're doing. And eating a snack alleviates those. You've made yourself in that moment feel better and improve that piece of your day. And that is valuable. I want to scroll through some of these veggies with hummus. If you've never had a edamame hummus, highly recommend chili cheese Fritos and a Mountain Dew. I have not had those before, but I am. I can get on the Baja Blast train.

Chips and dip pretzels and grapes. Date stuff with peanut butter Speak wonder. That's one of my favorites as well. Or date date bark, if you have seen that, where you, like, roll out, flatten your dates and then drizzle peanut butter, and then you drizzle a little bit of chocolate and, like, freeze it. I've seen that one. I haven't made it, but I've seen that one online all over. I don't know that I have a favorite snack right now. I will say it is sumo orange season. And if you haven't had a sumo orange, they're the larger mandarins that have this little, like, nub on top, so they're really easy to peel.

I really hate peeling oranges. So sumo orange season comes and I just eat a lot of sumo oranges and it lasts like four months, and then I have to wait until the next year. A conversation on snacking and enoughness. Yes, let's do it. Date bark. Highly recommend. A couple other things I want to talk about when it comes to snacking is I think that there's a Lot of value in using it as a piece of data as well. So snacking is not inherently bad, it's not inherently good. It just is. If you are noticing I am snacking or I'm wanting to snack, I'm feeling hungry all day, every day, then it might be worth looking at.

Okay, am I eating enough at my meals? Am I really fueling myself? Or maybe one thing that I see a lot with people is kind of saving calories for the end of the day and maybe either skipping breakfast or, you know, trying to keep breakfast really small. Food is fuel. If you're eating a really small breakfast, it's not gonna last you very long. Same thing with anytime you're eating a small amount as a meal, you're probably going to get hungry. And so it might be worth looking at. Okay, well, I'm noticing I'm snacking a lot.

Why might that be? And just kind of observing without judgment can help to shift eating patterns a little bit more and help to understand. Maybe you feel really snacky on days you're working out. Okay, maybe we need to A, bulk up our meals, or B, know that I need to be really prepared if I'm gonna be out running errands. I know I'm gonna be hungry. I know that I'm gonna want a snack. One of the things I talk about with clients a lot is accessibility and making sure you have things on hand. So that might be in your pantry.

But also, do you have snacks readily available in your bag or in your car is another one. If you're not in a really warm climate where things will melt those. It can be a really helpful piece of data. Pomegranate. I love pomegranate. Pomegranate on a salad is one of my favorites. Peanuts. Late night ice cream. Luke. I had ice cream last night. The Ben and Jerry's mousse pie is my new favorite ice cream. And it's incredible. My dad always says. I think ice cream is probably one of my, like, favorite dessert foods.

My dad always told me growing up, it fills in the spaces. So shout out to my dad for that one. There's nothing wrong with a little late night ice cream. Tastes good, feels good. Life's all about enjoying what you eat. And you're gonna get foods that have other nutrients as well. When I only have coffee for breakfast, I find that I crave drunk after my coffee. I don't know if that's habit or what, but I know my blood sugar is better if I fast until lunch. Yeah, I think I would I would have a lot of questions about that.

Right. Is blood sugar better as in not moving at all? Because blood sugar does rise and falling. You know this. You're obviously, you know this. But I wonder if it would feel better if there was something else paired with the coffee. Maybe it's worth a protein. I don't know if you've tried that lower numbers study line. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think what's important to. I'll throw this out there for everyone. Your blood sugar is supposed to rise. Obviously if you are someone who has diabetes or insulin resistance, like there's going to be anomalies in there.

But our blood sugar is supposed to have these kind of hills. What we don't want is like really drastic peaks and valleys. But the rolling hills is an analogy that I've seen a couple places and heard people talk about. And again, obviously like, you know yourself and I would be curious if you kind of played around with what types of foods there were around breakfast. Does that have any impact? Yeah, I think coffee for one. Caffeine's a stimulant, so that can sometimes impact really just like our mood and mood can impact our eating choices and cravings.

So yeah, lots of questions in there. If you ever want to talk about it, let me know. Other things to point out around snacking, some of the benefits can be it can help you to get in nutrients maybe you wouldn't be getting otherwise. Right. So you have heard me talk time and time again on here about the benefits of fiber. We all need fiber. Many people aren't getting enough. Protein is another big one. I think that has been so mainstream for a while now. But if you're struggling to maybe get enough fiber in your day or get enough protein in your day, snacking can be a great opportunity for that.

Having high protein, high fiber snacks. Berries are one thing that I really love to incorporate. Although they're out of season, kind of expensive right now. But frozen is a great option. Protein sources like yogurt, air, fried beans, like little crispy chickpeas or frozen edamame. Apparently I really like edamame that have fiber and protein are really great ways to boost those nutrients so that you're not like trying to eat, you know, 10 ounces of chicken at a meal to get your protein in and like three cups of spinach.

If not everyone loves that, I personally don't love that. So it can be a great way to incorporate these other nutrients that maybe you're struggling to get throughout the rest of the day. I've Heard some people. I'll touch on this just very briefly and I can go into it more if you want me to do a little live about more GI focused concepts. But there's something called the migrating motor complex, which is essentially like a broom in your intestines that shuffles the food through. And this is something that gets stimulated as a result of hormone release from eating, or hormones release from eating, inhibit it.

Once you've eaten, about 90 minutes after you've eaten, this process occurs. And it's four different things or in tandem that are moving things and clearing things out of your intestines. So if you are eating, that will stop. So if you're eating really, really consistently sometimes you might experience some digestive symptoms. This is really only something that I pay really close attention to in people. If you have IBS that can slow down that process or sibo, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, I think the number is like upwards of 80% of people who have a delayed MMC have the bacterial overgrowth in their intestines.

It also the cells that kind of facilitate this are directly communicating with your nervous system. So if you are someone who's struggling with any sort of nervous system dysregulation as a result of like a tbi, I'm not sure I would have to look up, look into it a little more specifically, like research of chronic stress. But that we know in a multitude of ways affects digestion. So that's something to keep in mind if you are any of those categories that you fall under. Maybe snacking doesn't benefit you, or maybe it still does.

It's so individualized. But I thought I'd throw that out there because I think sometimes that's. I've seen that in the media where it's like snacking is ruining your digestion. There's so much nuance to it and it really depends on the person, as does everything in nutrition. Last thing I'll say about snacking is one of the pieces that can really help to. If you're noticing your snacking kind of mind like a drive by, like you walk through the kitchen and you are grabbing something out of the pantry or the fridge, or you're doing it as you're grabbing, like running out the door.

We live in a society where we're always running around. It can be beneficial to insert some mindfulness and intentionality with your snacking in the same way that you would with a meal. So sitting down, plating it, even if you have the time and really enjoying it, because that satisfaction plays A role in our hunger. Right. So it's almost like are we noticing ourselves eating? That's something that comes up that will sometimes coincide with this idea of like ruining dinner, but bringing some mindfulness and intentionality back into snacking as well.

One slows you down. Two just helps you kind of refocus your day and bring some awareness to your hunger levels. Satisfaction around. Did that actually taste good? Do I feel like it supported my energy levels and my needs right now? That also is going. All of those things are going to again give us data that can inform decisions down the road. So I think those are my four points I really wanted to hit on today about snacking. Stacking is not good or bad. It just is. It can be really beneficial for some people.

For other people, you know, if you're someone who notices different trends in your blood sugar, like maybe it's not the best for you, that's okay too. Everyone is different. Everyone has different preferences and that is completely okay. One of the, I guess more nutrition related kind of what you can take with you. I as a dietitian always recommend having at least two components to a snack. So you're gonna do like pretzels, maybe pretzels with hummus to give you a little bit of protein and fiber.

It's gonna just help with the satiety again gets in those added nutrients. Helps with blood sugar. Dates and peanut butter is another good one. You've got carbohydrates in dates, fiber in dates as well. And then you're getting fat and a little protein from your peanut butter. So you're getting a well rounded mix of nutrients. What else do people say? Peanuts. Good source protein, fat. Yeah. Veggies with hummus. So pairing a couple things together tends to make the snack last a little longer and help things be really well rounded, important, helpful.

Doesn't have to be 100% of the time. Please know whenever I'm talking about things like that, it's what we do most of the time that impacts our overall health and wellness. Not. You don't have to be perfect Craisins. Ooh, Craisins are not one of my favorites. They're okay on a salad. I like them on a salad. Yeah, I mean Craisins, I think you're gonna get your carbohydrates. So maybe pairing them with either in a trail mix of some sort or pairing them with the peanuts that Luke mentioned earlier.

Yeah, opportunities for sure. If you guys. I'll let you go. As I said, we've got another live coming up a little later in the morning. I can't remember. I think 11:30 could be 2:30. I should have paid closer attention. Yeah, I'm happy to have had you all here. If there's ever anything specific you have questions about or want me to talk about, let me know. If there's anyone who like really wants to know about more GI type things, that's something I can definitely talk about. Otherwise, I think I have a little snack pairing idea guide if that's helpful for anyone.

I can also send that over or post it in the community page. Words are hard. All right, once again, cheers to you all. Happy Saturday. Stay warm, stay safe. I'll see you back here next week for another one and appreciate you all. Have a good one.