That said, Tsui notes, eating too close to bedtime can have some real downsides you’ll want to be aware of, like heartburn and sleep disruptions. Specifically, experts often recommend against eating anything within around three hours of going to sleep (whenever that happens for you, whether it’s 9 p.m. or 2 a.m.). Certain foods are more likely to cause issues, including spicy and fatty items, citrus fruits, tomatoes, tea, cocoa, coffee, and alcohol, so you’ll want to avoid these if possible. Mindless eating and overeating can also be a risk, since people tend to snack for reasons other than hunger at night, including out of habit and boredom. With these caveats in mind, try experimenting to find out what works best for you—and pay attention to your body’s cues above all. Eating too close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep, but hunger can too.
4. Ignoring your cravings.
Going back to the diet-culture ethos that assigns moral valuations to food, some people try to appease their cravings for “bad” items with “good” alternatives—say, opting for an apple or banana when they actually want potato chips. There’s just one problem: The “good” alternative may not actually satisfy you because it’s not fulfilling that specific desire, according to Van Eck. “If you’re noticing that your snack is not really hitting the spot, it could just be that the snack really is not the food that you’re looking for in the moment,” she elaborates. “Maybe you’re looking for something that’s soft and sweet, but all you have is salty popcorn, which is neither soft nor sweet—so responding accurately to that craving is helpful.”
Of course, that depends on the exact object of your cravings to some extent, since most experts advise limiting snacks high in sodium, sugars, and saturated fat (though on the flip side, depriving yourself completely can actually backfire on you by causing issues like binge-eating). Ultimately, it’s important to strike a balance—finding a happy medium between what’s nutritionally best for you and what your body actually wants.
5. Disregarding nutritional makeup.
Most common snack foods have one major pitfall: They’re rich in carbs, but not much else. Items like chips, crackers, pretzels, and popcorn “tend to be carb-heavy, which is great for that quick boost of energy but often not very filling,” Tsui says—a major problem if you’re snacking to stave off hunger between meals, as people often are. Instead of relying on these products alone (or cutting them out entirely), Tsui recommends pairing them with a source of protein, fat, or fiber to help bridge the gap. “These three nutrients help to slow digestion, which helps to increase satisfaction,” she explains. Think: common combos like cheese and crackers, fruit and nuts, chips and guac, or chips and salsa. If you’re in the mood for a meatier medley that’s more of a mini meal (try saying that five times fast!), you can even expand your snack into something akin to a TikTok “girl dinner” by assembling a charcuterie-type spread, according to Van Eck. This way, she says, “we’re not taking away the thing that is often deemed unhealthy or junky,” but rather building on it to enhance the nutritional value and ensure it’ll keep you satisfied for longer. What’s more, that added nutritional value could even help you meet your overall recommended daily allowance for important nutrients like fiber (of which “more than 90% of Americans don’t eat enough,” Tsui says).
6. Snacking at irregular intervals.
Rather than snacking at random moments throughout the day, Van Eck and Tsui recommend building regular snack times into your schedule—every three to four hours, to be precise. Since that range is “typically how long it takes for food to move through our digestive system and go past the stomach,” Van Eck says, this measure will help head off intense hunger pangs that can lead you to act on impulse and reach for whatever’s readily available, in turn increasing your chances of choosing a snack you’ll regret down the line. “When we get ravenous, that really impairs our ability to actually stop and think, ‘What feels good to me right now, what sounds appealing to me right now?’,” so it’s easy to end up “grabbing the first thing that looks good,” Van Eck says. But “if we’re able to build in that regular food, we can prevent that from happening.” For most people, that’ll mean a snack break between lunch and dinner (and/or after dinner), according to Tsui. “For some, a morning snack is helpful too!” she adds. If your schedule makes it tough to hit any or all of those intervals, do your best to plan in advance: You can work in a bigger snack earlier in the day if you’re slammed with afternoon meetings, or meal-prep a portable one to eat on the go if you’re traveling, for example.
7. Eating straight out of the bag.
If your snacking entails sticking your hand into a bag of chips or popcorn over and over again, it can be easy to lose track of your intake and end up “uncomfortably full,” as Van Eck puts it. Not only does that too-stuffed-to-move sensation make you feel lousy, but it can also throw off your eating schedule, potentially denying you the more nutritious food you’d likely eat at an actual meal (like dinner), so it’s definitely not a desirable outcome. To help avoid this, Van Eck suggests serving your snack on a plate or in a bowl—“not because you’re limiting yourself to only having what you poured out, but to build in a kind of checkpoint,” she says. Having this “checkpoint” in place makes it easier to remember to routinely assess your level of fullness and satisfaction so you can be more intentional about how much you’re eating.
8. Constantly snacking.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from never-snackers are always-snackers—people who graze throughout the day but never sit down to eat a proper meal (or don’t feel hungry enough to eat much when they do), according to Tsui. While this habit is often a consequence of a busy work or school schedule that makes it hard to carve out dedicated mealtimes, it can be detrimental from a nutrition standpoint: “What ends up happening is that food variety is often limited to foods that require very little prep, which can make it harder to meet nutrition needs,” Tsui says. Plus, continually eating small amounts of food can be less satisfying than eating a large amount of food all at once. This way, “a person might lose touch of their hunger or fullness cues because they never allow themselves to get hungry or full,” Tsui says. If this sounds like you but you really don’t have time for a proper meal anywhere in your day, Tsui recommends examining your diet more closely (and maybe even consulting a dietitian) to determine whether you’re eating enough and meeting your nutrition needs.
9. Using a snack to stand in for another form of self-care.
This is a big one. Snacking can be soothing in moments of tension and turbulence—the terms “comfort food” and “stress-eating” exist for a reason, after all—but Van Eck cautions against leaning on it to plug the hole if a better solution could be out there. “Very commonly, snacking is our way of coping with a stressful day or an overwhelmed feeling,” she says. After all, “food is comforting, food is easily accessible, whereas other forms of coping mechanisms may not be.” For that reason, take a beat to consider why you want a snack when you find yourself reaching for one—and whether you might be relying on it as a stopgap for a larger problem. “Sometimes, it’s helpful to check in with yourself and see, ‘Okay, do I want a snack, or do I actually want some other way to soothe myself? Am I stressed? Am I tired? Am I burned out?’” Van Eck says. Basically, “is there another self-care activity that we’re yearning for, and are we just replacing it with a snack?’” (In which case, mindfulness strategies might be able to help you overcome that compulsion, according to Harvard Health.) Sometimes, we do eat out of emotion—and that’s okay. Just be conscious of it when it’s happening so that you can address your deeper needs as well.
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