Another publication about nuts and snacking for you. This time, overweight children were given peanuts to snack on.
The theory is quite simple, kids are going snack, it will be very hard to stop that. So why not give them something that will fill them up and stop them reaching for the crisps and biscuits?
The paper is published in the Journal of Applied Research on Children. The researchers recruited a group of overweight Hispanic children and gave them some peanuts or a peanut butter snack before they caught their bus home at the end of the school day. They were also given a 12 week intervention including physical and nutritional education. The children were then split into groups depending on how strictly they adhered to the instructions.
The children that followed the guidelines closely had a greater decrease in their BMI than the children that reported that they did not follow the plan as strictly.
The authors state that although peanuts are high in fat, they are also able to make you feel full and are more healthy than alternative snacks out there.
If as an adult like me you are also prone to the occasional snack and an apple just won’t cut it, perhaps a handful of peanuts is not such a bad thing for us either to plug that gap between lunch and dinner.