I shared an article on twitter earlier today, and got an interesting mention afterward. My friend was upset that I shared information about nibbling between meals and how it may not affect BMI. In fact, he thought I should be ashamed. Of course, I immediately pulled up the article and read it thoroughly to see if, indeed, I should be ashamed. I am not.
The article – despite being based on a study with a very small sample size – raises some important points. What I got from this article is that people who nibble between meals may not do any harm to their weight, body mass index, blood glucose, etc. This study looked at women who were nibbling in a controlled way, meaning they were not overeating or binge eating.
Personally, I have had many experiences when nibbling has helped tide me over to the next meal. If I nibble on a couple of carrot sticks or a handful of nuts, there is no effect on my blood glucose. On the other hand, it is well-known that people who wait several hours between meals tend to overeat the next time they do eat. (This last link says people eat 52 calories more after 5 hours, and I know I can do a lot more damage than that the more time goes by between meals.)
There are definitely times when nibbling leads me to overeat. The longer I live with diabetes and the more tuned in I am to my body, the better idea I have of when this occurs. I know for a fact that nibbling leads me to overeat during PMS. It can also happen when I’m stressed or bored. These would be the times when nibbling would not be a good idea for me.
The point of the article (and they said it in their “Pass it on” message) is that planning snacks is probably a better approach. However, if you feel “in control” of your nibbling, it won’t necessarily hurt anything. Depending on your personality and approach to diabetes management, you might be worse off by withholding food from yourself. I also acknowledge that some people are more successful when they think of food as the enemy and just stay the heck away from certain types of food. We are all entitled to choose what works for us.
I am a firm believer that the more we know the better off we are. For that reason I am not ashamed of tweeting that article. Perhaps somebody read it and affirmed that what they are doing works. Maybe someone else read it and thought, “yea, nibbling is not in my best interest.” At the very least this whole ordeal has made me think, and diabetes is, after all, the “thinking person’s disease.”
I am new enough at blogging, twitter, etc., to not be used to attacks (does one ever get used to attacks?). In one day I’ve now been called a “drug-pusher” and an “ADA-minion who pimps high carb grains.” I hope from my blog posts it’s obvious what my approach actually is.