•Food equals energy. Your body needs energy to function.
•Your blood sugar levels between meals can drop significantly if you aren’t refueling yourself regularly. Low blood sugar levels can lead to crankiness, sluggishness, and trouble thinking (Oh no! Nobody likes a cranky, hungry co-worker). Eating a healthy snack between meals helps maintain your blood sugar levels at a healthy level by providing a steady stream of carbohydrates and nutrients for your body. Steady blood sugar levels help prevent these unwanted side effects.
•Speaking of unwanted side effects… eating smaller meals, more often throughout the day has been proven to prevent heartburn commonly experienced after eating big meals.
•Eating healthy snacks keeps you more full throughout the day so you are less likely to overeat at mealtimes because you are “soooooo huuuunnnngryyyyy.”
•I said it before, and its true… eating healthy snacks throughout the day can actually help you lose weight! (Aren’t we all looking for ways to lose weight?) How does eating more often help you lose weight? Snacking won’t miraculously melt off the pounds, but it will help and every little bit helps when it comes to your weight, right? When you go hungry, your body isn’t getting the energy it needs to function. Your body tries to conserve energy by slowing down your metabolism (which means you are burning calories slower) and “saving energy,” or in other words, storing fat. Yikes! This is called “starvation mode.” Eating a healthy snack between meals can prevent starvation mode between meals by giving your body a constant supply of energy so your metabolism can stay higher throughout the day (burning more calories!) because your body is no longer “starving” for nutrients.
•Snacking can help you stay healthy? Eating healthy snacks helps you get all the vitamins and nutrients that your body needs which helps build your immune system.
•Eating snacks can help you think more clearly by giving your brain the food it needs to work properly. So, eating that apple before you go out with your friends may help lower the number of those “foot-in-mouth” moments and you may get that raise you’ve been hoping for.
So go ahead, eat that healthy snack you’ve been thinking about the entire time you’ve been reading this article. It’s okay. Just remember to stay away from junk foods also called empty calorie foods (foods like candy, greasy foods/chips, etc…). These foods offer little or no nutritional value, only calories and/or fat. Stick to the healthy snacks and reap these rewards! Happy Snacking!