Top 3 Worst Snacks I Used to Think Were Healthy

Today we are going to talk about The Top 3 Worst Snacks I Used to Think Were Healthy.

Back in my younger, newbie years as a nutritionist, I did some very unhelpful things in my day-to-day counseling of patients and clients.  It’s hard to admit for sure!

Now, I didn’t know I was being unhelpful, I thought I was incredibly helpful using my “evidenced-based standards of care” to help women lose weight.

One of the biggest mistakes I made early on in my nutrition career was advising my women over 40 who were trying to lose weight to have pre-planned healthy snacks available at least three times a day.

Ooof!  I almost cringe a bit just thinking about it.

The point I’m making is that snacking has been promoted by nutritionists and health professionals for years.  Snacking was once absolutely taboo back even into the 1970’s. But now, it’s a whole industry.   

It has a place in our daily lives as its own meal time. Something to plan, something to buy, something to eat. Something to set our daily rhythms too.  

But it’s terrible advice.

So we will be setting the record straight as I go through my top 3 snacks that I used to promote that I realize now is a terrible idea if you are a woman over 40 who is trying to lose weight.

Snack # 1: Low-fat or fat-free flavored yogurt.

Yes, low-fat or fat-free flavored yogurt is a terrible snack.  It’s also a terrible breakfast.  No matter if it’s Greek, French, American, or in a squeeze tube, yogurt made from non-fat or low-fat milk that has added sweeteners turns on the fat-accumulation hormone, insulin, and if you have it between meals, will keep it on too high for much too long.  It may be low in calories, but it certainly promotes fat-accumulation. 

Snack # 2: Protein Bars

Think like Clif Bars, Atkins Bars, Pure Protein, KIND bars, ONE Protein Bars, RX Bars.  Yes, just that whole aisle in your grocery store. Most, if not all protein bars are a formulaic mix of processed ingredients that are not good for your body.  I find this one the most insidious because the marketing and the whole aura around them is that they are the embodiment of health.  Which is just not true.

Processed protein bars made with 5 ingredients or 55 ingredients are not going to help you burn body fat when you eat them between meals or as meal replacements.  They are going to stimulate your insulin and fill you full of chemicals that can clog your metabolic machinery.

Snack # 3: Fruit

That’s right, fruit. I used to recommend apples and peanut butter or pears and cheddar cheese or a banana between meals and that was very bad advice for women trying to lose weight.  Fruit, all fruit, is high in a specific sugar called fructose. Fructose is metabolized differently than glucose. It goes straight to your liver.  Diets high in fructose can cause fatty liver disease, high triglycerides and other cholesterol issues, and certainly excess fat accumulation.  By eating fruit between meals you are decidedly not going to burn your excess body fat anytime soon.

But Hannah, I can almost hear you say, "What about ______ for a snack?"

Well, let’s pan back 60,000 feet and talk a little about what any snack, not just these three that I used to recommend to people all the time, but really any food or drink with calories or artificial sweeteners are doing to your metabolism.

Because, truth be told, there is no such thing as a healthy snack if you are trying to burn fat.  If you are trying to lower your blood sugars.  If you are trying to keep weight from coming back on.  If you are trying to eat healthy.

When you eat anything between meals, from an ice cream cone to a protein bar, you stimulate the hormone insulin to turn on.  This happens naturally when we eat and is a good thing. Insulin is not inherently bad.  It’s good.  Without it, we would all melt away and die.

The problem is that most of us have insulin that turns on too high and stays on too long. This happens because our metabolisms are damaged. When your insulin turns on too high and stays on too long, that’s when you store fat. That’s when you gain weight.

If you feel like you are totally dependent on snacks like protein bars, yogurts or fruit, or any food or drink really,  to get you through the day, that is a sign of metabolic damage and why you may be struggling with losing weight. 

Not snacking is a very difficult thing to do because your metabolism is dependent on the snacks. Our whole eating environment creates a positive feedback loop for you to need more and more food. Just what Proctor and Gamble are hoping for.

It’s a real struggle because the only way to give up snacking completely is to have a happy healthy metabolism that can grab our fat stores between meals and burn that for energy instead of screaming for more food to burn, but it can be done!

I struggled with giving up snacking for years until I started to understand metabolism on a new deeper level.  Once I repaired my damaged metabolism, I was able to give up snacking without any hunger, drama, or desire. It was effortless. 

But it starts with healing your metabolism from the current toxic food environment that you set up to fail.