Snacking, Blood Glucose, and Lipid Levels: What You Need to Know

Does snacking affect your well-being? The answer lies in the type and timing of your snacks.

A comprehensive research study indicates that indulging in late-night treats or highly processed snacks might have detrimental health effects.

Snacking habits are on the rise, with over 70% of individuals admitting to snacking at least twice daily. In a recent study of more than 1,000 participants, investigators explored the influence of snacking on health, and the significance of the quality of snack foods.

“Our study showed that the quality of snacking is more important than the quantity or frequency of snacking, thus choosing high quality snacks over highly processed snacks is likely beneficial,” points out Dr. Kate Bermingham, a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London. “Timing is also important, with late night snacking being unfavorable for health.”

This research is a component of the ZOE PREDICT project, a series of comprehensive nutrition studies aiming to uncover individual responses to food variations.

“Surprisingly little has been published on snacking, despite the fact that it accounts for 20-25% of energy intake,” Bermingham remarks. “PREDICT followed a large number of people and captured detailed information on their snacking behaviors, allowing this in-depth exploration of snacking on health.”

What are the effects of snacking on health?

To find out, they evaluated the correlation between the quantity, quality, and timing of snacks with blood fats and insulin levels using data from over 1,000 UK participants in the ZOE PREDICT 1 study.

These factors are key indicators of cardiometabolic health.

How does snacking affect blood fat and insulin levels?

The results demonstrated a positive correlation between snacking on nutrient-rich foods — those offering substantial nutrients for the calories they carry — and improved blood fat and insulin reactions.

They also found that late-night snacking, extending the feeding window, and reducing the fasting duration, correlated with unfavorable blood glucose and lipid levels.

However, there was no connection between the frequency of snacks, calorie intake, and quantity of food with any health metrics studied.

“We observed only weak relationships between snack quality and the remainder of the diet, which highlights snacking as an independent modifiable dietary feature that could be targeted to improve health,” Bermingham concluded.

Bermingham will be sharing these results at the flagship annual conference, NUTRITION 2023, organized by the American Society for Nutrition in Boston from July 22-25.

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