The Science Of Snacking

1. Use fruit cut into cubes to release dopamine. Bite-sized snacks tease the dopamine system into rewarding you. Eating just one bite is unsatisfying. For junk food, this explains why you don’t stop once you start. But if you’re eating fruit, you’ll eat your two servings minimum per day.

2. Keep healthy snacks on hand. It’s crucial you have some instant, ready-to-eat food around the house. Being prepared with foods you know are healthy prevents you overindulging in junk food. My top tip is air dried apple or apple chips. A packet is sweet and full of crunch but oddly satisfying. Or wasabi flavoured seaweed. Crunchy and delicious.

3. In season or frozen fruits and vegetables are the cheapest. And the most delicious. You can even do things like freezing grapes when they’re plentiful.

Take fruit to work so you always have something sweet and fresh on hand. I like to cut up lots of fresh vegetables each week and separately pop them into containers in the fridge. Then, if I’m scrambling for something instant — I have veggies! Perfect on their own or for dipping.

4. Be mindful. If you snack, don’t multitask. Just take time out, give yourself a break and permission to enjoy what you’re eating away from distractions. The more you pay attention to the food you’re eating, the more dopamine will be released and the more satisfying it will become.

5. Understand that your brain sees an unfinished snack as a challenge.It wants to reward you for a job well done. If you don’t eat all your snack, your brain won’t use that neurotransmitter dopamine as your reward so you won’t feel satisfied. Overcome this by portioning out your snacks into serving sizes so you get the win without overeating.

6. Focus on eating three main meals per day. Don’t think you can fool your brain into eating less by scrimping on your main meals. It will simply respond by increasing your desire to snack. Starvation stimulates overeating so essentially you’re sabotaging yourself. Add lots of vegetables to meals — you have five servings to reach each day, and that’s a lot. You need to focus on this each meal time.

7. Don’t snack. Despite these hacks, some people struggle with snacking. And if this is you, focus on main meals and try to avoid snacking where possible. So if you find that you are never satisfied and can’t eat in moderation, then instead of “snacking”, plan decent meals.