Eating between meals, a generation ago it was seriously frowned upon but in today’s world of eating on the go or at our desks it has become part of the norm. But what about teenagers, what should we give them if they are hungry between meals?
According to research published in the Journal of Nutrition, a high protein snack is the way to go. The researchers recruited 31 seventeen year olds (plus or minus a year) and split them into 3 groups. The first group ate a high protein snack in the afternoon, the second group a high fat snack and the third group no snack. After 3 days of the trial, the teenagers were subjected to an 8 hour testing day, during which the researchers measured many things including the appetite of the participants through questionnaires and food cue stimulated brain scans. They also recorded when they initiated eating their evening meal.
The group that were given the high protein snack ate their evening meal later than the control group and the high fat snack group. Better than that, when they did eat, they consumed more protein than both the high fat snack and the control groups. They also consumed less fat than the group given the high fat snack.
The high protein snack used in this case was a soy based product with 26g protein (although also with 27g of carbs) and 6g fat. It would be interesting to see how other high protein snacks would fare.
Or what about ones with equal protein and fat such as pork scratchings? In fact, I think I will try that one myself, I’ll let you know what I find.