This Morning nutritionist says snacking can help lower body fat - so long as you follow one golden rule

Many of us think that snacking is a recipe for putting on weight, but one nutritionist insists that is not necessarily the case. Speaking on This Morning, award-winning nutritionist Rob Hobson says that snacking can actually be healthy - provided you follow a key rule.

Citing a study from King's College London, he said that the key to healthy snacking is all about what you eat, and when. He stressed that the 'quality' of the snack was crucial as to whether it would lead to a 'positive health outcome'. And he added that snacking earlier in the day, rather than late at night, was crucial to eating healthily.

Rob said: "There was some research recently – a couple of months ago – from King’s College and they looked at the effects of snacking on health outcomes. That is things like your body weight, your body fats, your blood fats, blood sugar – that kind of thing.

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"What they found was that it didn’t really matter how often you snacked or the calories in the snacks – that didn’t really have an effect on those heath impacts. It was really about the quality of the snack and when you snacked.

"So what they found was that high-quality snacks obviously were associated with better health outcomes and feeling full, whereas low-quality snacks had negative health outcomes, but then left you feeling hungry. And in terms of timing, they found that people that snacked earlier in the day chose healthier snacks and had better health outcomes, while people who snacked late at night, especially on sugary foods, had poor health outcomes.

"What they found that was quite interesting is that people who snack on healthy snacks actually had lower BMI and lower body fat than people who didn’t snack at all. Maybe people were fuller when they ate, it could be something to do with their blood sugar.

"The take-home message is that it is okay to snack if it’s a healthy snack earlier in the day."

The NHS says that fruit and vegetables makes for healthy snacks. When it comes to snack ideas, the website suggests malt loaf or fruited teacake, fruit salad, crackers topped with lower-fat cheese, a bagel topped with sliced banana, plain popcorn or rice cakes, unsalted nuts, chopped veg with lower-fat hummus, or lower-sugar yoghurts or lower-sugar rice pudding.

When it comes to drinks, the NHS suggests water, sugar-free drinks, no-added-sugar drinks or lower-fat milks as healthy alternatives to fizzy drinks, juice drinks or milkshakes.