What is the Protein Snack?
By snack we mean a secondary meal, therefore different from the three main meals, which are breakfast, lunch and dinner. In a balanced diet, snacks should be at least two per day (preferably three) and each provide 5-10% of the total daily kilocalories (kcal); to give a concrete example: in a 2000kcal diet the energy of a snack could fluctuate between 100 and 200kcal.
Having clarified this, let's try to understand what is the function of the snack (or secondary meal) and how it should be structured.
Let's say that, in general, the nutritional recommendations for a balanced snack derive mainly from the need to comply with the sense of appetite (and not hunger!) That arises between the main meals. Snacks therefore serve to postpone the need to eat, but also to support the body during regular daily activities; the basic requirements are: practicality of use, ease of consumption and digestive lightness.
As for other meals, even snacks subordinate to subjective nutritional needs, therefore their management / organization can change significantly in an intra and interpersonal way. For example, a sportsman's snack will hardly be the same as a sedentary one, just as the secondary meal of a single athlete cannot be standardized between training and rest days.
The chemical composition of a snack is to be established by respecting the criterion of nutritional balance; for example, if in some cases it must ONLY comply with energy needs, in others it has the function of compensating for plastic (protein) needs. Obviously, it is a good idea always avoid junk foods and food supplements, preferring NON-processed and natural foods; for example, rather than crackers (containing refined flours and hydrogenated fats) it is better to prefer fruit and oil seeds (which include fructose, polyunsaturated fats, water, more salts minerals, various vitamins and dietary fiber). In the same way, instead of a drink based on isolated proteins (which does not provide anything but peptides) it is better to opt for protein foods (also rich in minerals, vitamins, probiotics, etc.) .
In the next paragraph we will try to better understand WHEN the snack must be mainly protein (plastic).
Protein in Snacks: When and How ...
As anticipated, the snack varies according to need. It is often used to support the main meals in the intake of fiber, potassium, magnesium, water and energy (through the consumption of fruit and cereal derivatives); at other times it helps to prevent muscle catabolism (in adult athletes, in subjects with defects intestinal absorption, etc.) and to promote anabolism (in bodybuilders and in growing subjects who practice sports).
Protein foods to be used comfortably in the context of a snack are: low-fat yogurt (traditional, thickened, Greek, etc.), cottage cheese, cooked egg whites, roast beef, canned tuna (less advisable compared to the previous ones) etc .; these foods, in addition to containing high amounts of proteins, also boast an excellent biological value.
The protein snack therefore plays a fairly important role in achieving plastic needs ... but this does not mean that it is ALWAYS the correct choice! It can benefit essentially people who do not tolerate very protein-rich main meals (for digestive issues), those who fail in intestinal absorption (elderly, subjected to partial resection of the intestine, etc.), diabetics (to ensure an index and a load low glycemic levels), overweight people (who benefit from a higher specific dynamic action), etc.
Outside of these contexts, in various circumstances the intake of protein in the diet is even excessive; clear examples are the diets of bodybuilders and those who practice high-protein diets for aesthetic purposes (diets aimed at reducing fat mass beyond the predisposition individual or regardless of the state of health). In these cases the plastic requirement is amply covered by the main meals and, through the use of protein snacks, it can become EXCESSIVE subjecting the liver and kidneys to an unnecessary workload.
Based on the above, the secondary protein meals can be of different kinds; so: "How to choose them?"
Breakfast: Importance of Meal
Breakfast is one of 5-6 ordinary meals of the day. It is usually called "the most important", even if most people are unable to justify the real reason. From a "quantitative" point of view, breakfast provides (or rather, should provide) about 15% of the total daily calories. On the contrary, the other two main meals (ie lunch and dinner), should provide approximately 40 and 35% of the energy; at the same time, secondary meals (2-3 snacks) only contribute to the total for the remaining 10 % (up to 25%) of calories So, if the math is not an "opinion", by respecting the criterion of "caloric quantity", breakfast seems much more like a secondary meal than a main one. However, its importance lies in a metabolic rather than a mathematical mechanism.
Breakfast has the purpose of refreshing the body after a fast that lasts from the end of the previous dinner. In principle, assuming that the last meal of the day is consumed between 19:30 and 20:30, and that the the next breakfast takes place between 7:30 and 8:30, this time frame should correspond to about 11-13 hours. It goes without saying that, logically, breakfast should provide much more than 15% of the daily calories (remember the saying: "eat a king's breakfast, a prince's lunch and a poor man's dinner"?); also because, observing the circadian cycles, insulin secretion and its peripheral uptake are greater in these hours of the day rather than in the afternoon or at night. Nevertheless, in the morning (perhaps due to nervous or time issues) , the average person does not easily tolerate large portions of food and prefers to consume them for lunch or dinner. Furthermore, it should be remembered that night fasting takes place in conditions of deliberately limited energy expenditure (in essence, it corresponds to the basal metabolism); , is certainly not comparable to a "morning, afternoon or evening abstinence, periods in which the body is more active and expensive. It should be specified that, being the first meal, reducing its amount or completely eliminating it runs the risk of accumulating appetite (which turns into HUNGER) and to exceed portions in subsequent meals; in practice, not taking this energy at breakfast, this is then added to lunch or dinner, increasing the fat deposits due to calorie excess.
These are the reasons which justify the importance of the morning meal and which, at the same time, limit its size to a modest 15% of the total.
