Q&A When Best to Eat Sweets

Hi!I attended your recent CAM conference in Colorado. I had one follow-up question to ask, if you don't mind a quick one...
I have a client who I have been working with on food, eating, etc. for a while, and I learned a lot of information to pass along to her after hearing you talk. I have discussed protein and limiting carbs with my client, but she still insists on having a little "sweet" at some point during the day (such as a cookie or brownie). So, my question is: is there a optimal time of the day if one wants to have a little snack such as this? I am positive breakfast/morning would not be the time; my best guess might be between dinner and a night-time protein snack before bed? I thought you might be able to help me pass along a recommendation to my client while she is working on this. My hope is that eventually this snack time can be reduced or eliminated—or a more health alternative, such as a Clif bar, can be eaten instead, but for now, it's still there.

Thanks so much, I really enjoyed your presentation and gathered a lot of information from it (for personal use as well!)Krista


Krista-

Thank you for your question.

Snacks, like cookies, sweets, and ice cream, are one of the pleasures we have in life. I don’t believe that we should eliminate them. I often say to my clients, “If you are going to cheat, cheat well!” An important part of successfully managing our emotions is avoiding situations in which we feel deprived. We sometimes feel deprived when we get a little of something, so we end up taking a lot.

So when is a good time to have a sweet? My recommendation is to prevent the hypoglycemic roller coaster. The worse time to eat a sweet snack is away from a meal when the body has no protein and fiber from fruits and veggies. So, the easy time is right after a meal with protein and veggies or grains. The fiber in fruits, veggies and grains slow down the absorption of the sugars and the protein provides a slow burning fuel to keep us from being hypoglycemic.

I also ask what type of sweetener is in the sweet snack. I am very concerned about High Fructose Corn Sugar (HFCS) because studies show that it makes people hungrier and less motivated to participate in physical activity. This makes us eat more and burn less calories which contributes to weight gain. So for instance, homemade cookies with sugar are different than many purchased sweets because the purchased sweets usually contain HFCS.

The most important question is how does the sweet snack affect her? Is she tired/anxious/irritable/hunger two hours later?

As for protein bars, I think that they are a reasonable meal replacement when a person is too busy to eat or is forced to be late to a meal. However, protein bars tend to have a lot of calories, so hopefully the cookie choice has less calories then a protein bar. If she is pairing the snack with an apple or a meal, I think that would be a better choice. Plus, she is eating a cookie because she loves the cookie. It is an en-JOY-ment of life. I rarely run into people who find JOY in protein bars.