What actually is a snack? To my mind, it is something quick that we eat to keep us going until we get to a meal - a quick pit stop and fuel top up. It's absolutely true that snacks have a very valuable role in a daily diet, but personally, I believe we rely on them too much. There are two issues to look at here - the over reliance on snacking, and the quality of the snack itself.

Firstly, too many snacks. When you eat a good (meaning nutrient-dense) breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks immediately fall into their natural role. But what happens for many people (especially children) is that the good nutrient-dense breakfast, lunch or dinner never happens, and they roam from snack to snack in search of nutrients to keep them going. Snacking is different to having a lot of small meals, rather than three bigger ones during the day. You all know (because I say it all the time) the body has a vast requirement for nutrients daily - I'm not saying you need lots of food, you need lots of nutrients, and this is very different. The body works along the lines of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - it needs nutrients first, before anything else can take place - things like focus, thinking, walking, doing. Your capacity to function optimally without a good breakfast, lunch and dinner is hugely compromised, and a pattern of abundant snacking in search of fuel will only make things worse. It's especially true in the case of children, and it's absolutely heartbreaking to see large numbers of them (obese and not) starving for nutrients, with lunch boxes filled with snack bars and foods that really are not foods at all but chemicals, refined carbohydrate and sugars. It's also heartbreaking to see the lady in the car next to me at 8am putting on her makeup, drinking a can of "zero" cola drink, and choc bar in the other hand. Snacks are fabulously valuable to top up fuel requirements, but they should never, ever replace the meal itself.

Secondly, the quality of the snack itself. A snack, (as with all food) should be of the very best quality, rich and dense with nutrients, with real ingredients and as whole as possible. To my mind, there is no role for most of the so called snack foods available today. You might like to go crazy from time to time, and eat some totally unreal food such as chive and onion potato chips (I would have these about twice a year and love them) with full knowledge of how absolutely soulless and deficient they are, but that is different to considering them a viable alternative for food, daily. So, many commercial snack foods are falling in through the crack of our perception that it's only a snack, it's not a meal, and thus it's okay. The problem with this, for many people, is that there is no meal, or there is really only one good meal, generally dinner.

I am often asked what I would consider good snacks for children, and secondly for adults. With regard to adults, firstly concentrate on the meals, and fill in the gaps with snacks - you will immediately notice that you will depend less on snacks, and the never ending search for "healthy" snacks will lessen. The case of children is different - in the sense that they have different times and patterns of eating. My first piece of advice regarding snacks for children is similar to that for adults - consider the meals first, but break the breakfast, lunch and dinner into smaller parts - a bit now, a bit later. They can graze on their breakfast, lunch, dinner rations at the pace that works for them - this is most relevant for the very young and toddlers and even when at kinder and primary school. The area of most concern is afternoon tea - for school age children and teenagers - this is not the time for a snack, it's a time for a meal. Both age groups are starving at this time - for children, this is their natural and best time to eat dinner (think High Tea in the Harry Potter books and movies) and, for teenagers, they will eat two dinners - one at afternoon tea, and very often another one at dinnertime.

It is absolutely foolish to continue to offer them a snack, only to hear "Muuuummmmm, I'm hungry, what's to eat?" And guess what - that "healthy" piece of fruit is not going to do it! If you are concerned that you won't have a "family meal", I'm not saying don't include young children at the family meal and table, but making children (generally up to 10) wait to eat until later is crazy. They are tired, and if they have had to snack on food with little nutrient density (even though it might be healthy, such as fruit), their body and biochemistry will be stressed to the max, and they pick at their dinner. These children never settle, their cells are starving for nutrients, and this continues into the evening bed routine, teenagers included. This afternoon tea meal can be small - enough to sustain, but not so much as to fill up, so they can then enjoy a little of the family meal (two mini meals so to speak). As we enter winter, it could be a mini Shepherds Pie, bowl of hearty soup with toast, Apple Pie with custard, nachos - all good, hearty fare generally considered as dinner food.

GREAT SNACKS FOR ALL AGES
But, as a general handful of great snacks for young and old, here goes: Muesli bars (homemade), little wholegrain salads, quality yoghurt with stewed fruits/ drizzle raw honey (don't use the raw honey for children under one), guacamole dip with raw vegies, quality cheese (I love it with apple), nuts and seeds of any description in any form - ground to a paste and spread on wholegrain bread or celery sticks, or eaten as is in your own trial mix, hard boiled egg, spirulina smoothie, homemade wholegrain cookies (nuts will increase density), nori roll pieces, bliss balls (dried fruit, nuts, seeds mixed together), black sticky rice with coconut set in little takeout containers, or home made popcorn.

Visit our Recipes page for the delicious Muesli Bars - wheat and dairy free.