Why do you snack? Are you genuinely hungry? Is it a habit? Are you just bored? These are the questions that a research team at Aberdeen’s Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health are trying to answer, with a new study aiming to learn why people snack. As part of a Scottish government drive to tackle the wellness problem of obesity, the team spent a week monitoring over 100 Scots, recording their heart rates, activity levels and snacking habits. This will be done using heart sensors, GPS devices and an electronic diary, and the scientist say they hope to find out how the “executive functions” in your brain affects your wellbeing in terms of snacking.
According to study leader Dr David McMinn, from the institute, ‘We live in an environment where snack foods are readily available, and where desk jobs and labour-saving devices mean that we are less active than in previous generations. Because our environment makes it easy to consume high-calorie snack foods and spend long periods of time inactive, eating well and being active requires considerable self-regulation. It requires us to make an effort, such as deciding not to snack in order to maintain a healthy weight.’
Dr McMinn added, ‘We are particularly interested in the way food choices and physical activity behaviours are linked to psychological processes in the brain called the “executive functions”. We use executive functions to achieve goals, for example, planning actions in advance, solving problems, ignoring distractions and resisting temptations. The executive functions can be depleted if used intensively, or due to particularly stressful situations. We are interested to know if reductions in executive functions are associated with behaviours such as snacking on unhealthy foods or sedentary behaviour.’
It is the researchers hope that 120 people will participate in the study. Volunteers will be required to be over the age of 18, not currently taking beta-blockers and able to attend the university’s health sciences building on the Foresterhill campus to take part in psychological testing ahead of the seven-day monitoring period. Dr McMinn noted, ‘Information from the different monitoring devices will be used to identify where periods of snacking, activity, sedentary behaviour, and stress occur. The aim is to try to understand why people snack, because we all know that sticking to a healthy diet is easier said than done.’