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“Healthy Snack” Is an Oxymoron
There is no such thing as a “healthy snack”
This is the first article in the mini-series of three inspired by three excellent Medium stories by Debra G. Harman, MEd., Maria Rattray, and Brendareeves, MEd., linked below.
Although those stories are very different in many ways: style, content, level of detail, etc. — all three have one common denominator, which might not be obvious to most people. And this is what prompted me to come up with this mini-series.
If you are interested in the topic of weight loss/gain, and if you want to understand why it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy weight for most of us, you will enjoy reading this mini-series. And most likely, you will learn something new along the way.
To show what I’m talking about, we’ll need to take a look at some well-established science basics. It is not anything new in the science world, but rather some super-simplified concepts from a textbook, such as the foundational book by Dr. Jason Fung (no affiliation), or similar sources.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and it is not medical advice. If you decide to use this information consult your healthcare provider.
Blood sugar and insulin
Almost any food we eat significantly elevates blood sugar (except pure fat but we practically never eat pure fat). Elevated blood sugar is a normal part of the metabolic processes because the body uses sugar as a fuel to convert it to energy, which we need to support life.
Sugar is one of the two types of fuel used by the body. Another type of fuel that can be converted to energy is fat, but it is a lot more difficult for the body to burn fat. That is why, as long as blood sugar is elevated, the body will happily use sugars for fuel, and it won’t touch the fat resources.
Think of throwing paper (sugar) into the fire, or trying to burn a heavy log of wood (fat). This is a crude analogy but it’s good enough to make this point: as long as the sugar resources are plenty, the body won’t burn fat.
In response to elevated levels of blood sugar, the body secretes insulin. Roughly speaking, when we…
