Are Snacks Part of a Healthful Diet?

Is eating between meals a way to sabotage your weight loss or keep the metabolism fires burning so you lose weight more effectively?

That's the question posed by US News & World Report writer Katherine Hobson.

She notes, "It used to be that someone who wanted to lose weight was advised to stick to three square meals a day. For adults, at least, snacking was considered an unnecessary source of extra calories, and if you were hungry between meals, well, tough; you'd just have to wait for the next one. Nowadays, it's a rare diet plan that doesn't include planned snacks."

It seems snacking is good, however the size of the snack plays a huge role. An appropriate snack in a typical 2,000-calorie-a-day diet is about 150 to 200 calories.

For the rest of this story go to this US News & World Report page: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/diet-fitness/2009/06/18/can-snacks-be-part-of-a-healthful-diet.html