National Snack Food Month

AlejandroLinaresGarcia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

February is National Snack Food Month in the United States.

The true definition of snack food is a portion of food which is eaten as a snack, rather than as a regular meal and are often eaten between such, and, as a consequence of this, tends to be of a smaller size than a full size meal. It can also be used to refer to a smaller portion made from leftovers from a larger meal.

The term snack food tends to conjure up an unhealthy image, and this is often the case. Many snack foods are purchased pre-packaged and containing processed foods. Items that are commonly associated with the terms include such as crisps (potato chips), sweets (candy) and chips (French fries). However, just because snacks are often unhealthy does not mean that they have to be.

Any small portion of food can be considered to be a snack. This includes things such as fruit and vegetables, such as carrot sticks. The best sort of snack food is that made fresh, using fresh, healthy ingredients. The worst sort, and the most unhealthy, is pre-packaged and processed snack foods. The latter type does tend to be consumed more frequently though.

If you are going to have a snack, it makes sense, from a health point of view, to eat healthily and make the snack yourself from your own ingredients or, if this is time consuming, choose a commercially available snack that is similar. Snacking on high fat, but unfortunately often tasty, foods will have a detrimental long term effect.