Snacking - Yea or Nay?

Snacks are not a must. Snacking when you are not hungry or being a ‘grazer’ is typically associated with weight regain. Snacking is best reserved for when you are physically hungry. When you are earlier on post surgery and only tolerating a smaller volume such as ½ a cup of food in one sitting, you may find that you need to snack more often. As your volume increases closer towards the 1 cup portion in one sitting, your reliance on snacking should decrease.

If you find your snacking is starting to creep up, ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you having 3 structured meals a day? i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner?

• Are you evenly spacing your meals across the day? i.e. not going hours and hours without eating?

• Are you getting in at least 10-20g of protein at each meal to help fill you up?

• Are you incorporating Low GI, high fibre carbohydrates?

• Are you choosing meals that require chewing or relying too heavily on liquid/’sloppy/slidey’ meals that tend to not fill us up at much?

• Are you drinking at least 1.5-2L fluid/day?

If you have addressed all the above and are confident that you need a snack for the right reasons, try giving some of the below options a go. Where possible, try and prioritise protein containing snacks – these will help to fill you up more. Snacks are also a good opportunity to incorporate foods which you typically don’t have at main meals in order to increase your overall food variety.

Higher Protein Snacks (100-150 calories)

• Tub of high protein yoghurt (e.g. 170g Chobani / 160g YoPro / 150g Siggi’s) (14-17g protein).

• 200mL glass of trim milk (7g protein).

• 1x small skim cappuccino, latte or flat white coffee (no sugar) (7g protein).

• 1x Beqa Farmer’s Tasty Cheese Stick (5g protein).

• 2x Laughing Cow Cheese Triangles (3g protein).

• 2x Vita-Weat crackers with 1x 20g slice reduced fat tasty cheddar cheese (7g protein).

• 2x Vita-Weat crackers with ¼ cup cottage cheese (9g protein).

• 1x Mainland On the Go Light, 30g cheese and cracker snack pack (7g protein).

• 20g mixed nuts (3.5g protein).

• 95g tin tuna (16.5g protein).

• 1x large boiled egg (6g protein).

• 1x 130g tin baked beans (6g protein).

• Fresh cut non-starchy veggie sticks with 1x Philadelphia Cream Cheese Mini Tub (3g protein) OR ¼ cup reduced fat tzatziki dip (7g protein).

• 1x 25g packet The Happy Snack Company Roasted Fava Beans (6.5g protein).

• 1x scoop standard WPI protein powder (without carbohydrate) made on water (20g protein).

• 1x Emma & Toms Protein Bar / Egg White Protein Ball (6-8g protein).

• ½ YoPro Protein Bar (10g protein).

Low/No Protein Snacks (100-150 calories)

• 1x piece of fruit / 1 cup chopped fresh fruit salad.

• Fresh cut non-starchy veggie sticks with ¼ cup tomato salsa or 2 tbsp. hummus.

• 1x 20g packet of Cool Pak popcorn.

• 1x Freedom Foods Barley+ muesli bar.

• 1x Vita-Weat cracker with 3x slices avocado + tomato + cracked pepper on top.

• 1x regular slice raisin toast with a thin scrape of butter on top.

- Jacinta