Snacks instead of meals? page

[Narcolepticjenn]

Sometimes I end up eating primal snacks rather than actual primal meals. Today I tried some Niman Ranch apple and gouda sausage in my scrambled eggs, and didn't end up liking the sausage (tasted way more like a hot dog than I expected. Just wasn't appetizing). So I ended up eating a piece of bacon I baked yesterday, and a handful of whole raw almonds, and a bunch of grape tomatoes, and a piece of the raw cheese I just got (another new primal food I wanted to try). I read a post somewhere here about how snacking instead of eating a real meal can get newbies like me in trouble. Is it really that bad? If I had put it all on a plate together, I could have called it a primal ploughman's platter, and that's legit... right?

[Sandra in BC]

If you're good and hungry, and eating 5 handfuls of food in one sitting, and eating till you're full, its a meal.

If you're just nibbling away at a handful here and there, not really hungry, never really full, then you're snacking, and ignoring your body's messages. Hunger is your body asking for fuel. Food your body didn't ask for is food it doesn't need. How will you ever know if you're eating enough or too much?

[RichMahogany]

If you're good and hungry, and eating 5 handfuls of food in one sitting, and eating till you're full, its a meal.

If you're just nibbling away at a handful here and there, not really hungry, never really full, then you're snacking, and ignoring your body's messages. Hunger is your body asking for fuel. Food your body didn't ask for is food it doesn't need. How will you ever know if you're eating enough or too much?

Truth. The issue is with incessantly putting small quantities of food in your body every couple hours, not making a meal out of several hand-held items.

[Wulf]

another issue with snacking, or not eating enough at a meal, is being tempted to eat less than desirable things later because you didn't eat enough before.

[Hedonist2]

If you're good and hungry, and eating 5 handfuls of food in one sitting, and eating till you're full, its a meal.

If you're just nibbling away at a handful here and there, not really hungry, never really full, then you're snacking, and ignoring your body's messages. Hunger is your body asking for fuel. Food your body didn't ask for is food it doesn't need. How will you ever know if you're eating enough or too much?

+1

There is some reason to think that women are evolved to snack. Have you gathered anything immediately edible, like fruit, without eating some? (Ok, now we have concerns about contamination.) It may be that Mother Nature wants women to have a steady supply of food for pregnancy and nursing, and men to be lean hunters who fast. No one knows for sure.

[lemontwisst]

A snack or a meal is really defined by how many calories are in it, not the types of foods you're eating. As long as you have it in your head that what you just ate was a meal and not a snack, and doesn't leave you leaving for something else to nibble on an hour and a half later, I wouldn't get hung up on what you're eating, as long as it's primal.

[MissJecka]

I agree with everyone else; it sounds like you're not grazing or snacking, rather you're eating a meal that has lots of little components. I do the same!

One of my favorite "meals" is about about two ounces of raw cheddar, a hard boiled egg (or two), a handful of baby carrots, half an avocado, and sometimes some pistachios.

[Narcolepticjenn]

Ok, awesome. Thanks, guys! I feel better about that lunch. It was delicious, and everything was primal. Starting a 30 day strict Paleo challenge at my gym, though... No cream, grass-fed butter and fancy cheese for a month. Boooooooooo.