French scientists say ‘bon appetit’ to snacking

If you’re afraid that snacking might cause you to gain weight, relax.

French researchers have found that in healthy normal-weight people, eating between meals doesn’t put on pounds and may even have some benefits, such as helping you avoid overeating at the next meal.

Twenty-six college students and 28 middle-aged Parisians answered food questionnaires and kept food diaries for four seven-day periods. They recorded what they ate and when and rated their hunger, thirst and feelings of energy and mood at the time.

On most days, the men and women ate at least one snack, typically in the afternoon, getting about 18.5% of their day’s total calories in snack foods. (It’s estimated that middle-aged, sedentary American men consume about 17% of their calories in snacks.)

The total calorie count on days that included a snack was no different from days when the participants didn’t snack. The foods they ate between meals were higher in carbohydrates and lower in fat than their regular meals.

“The high prevalence of snacking is somewhat of a surprise to us. The fact that days with snacks and days without were not different in terms of calories is reassuring and indicates that when people snack, at least in our group of subjects, the calories eaten at meals decreased in proportion to the calories ingested as snacks,” says lead author France Bellisle, director of research at the National Institute of Agronomic Research. However, Bellisle cautions, snacking may cause overeating in people with weight-control problems.

And what did the participants snack on? The most popular foods were fruit, pastry and soup. Coffee and tea topped the beverage list, followed by fruit juices and then sugar-containing sodas. “Our group probably ate more fruits and drank less soda than a comparable group of American adults do, but that needs to be confirmed,” says Bellisle.

The study was published in the July issue of Physiology and Behavior.