{"id":1155102,"date":"2026-08-18T06:28:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1155102\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T06:28:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:28:27","slug":"nutrition-myth-buster-how-the-metabolism-myth-created-a-nation-of-snackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1155102\/","title":{"rendered":"Nutrition myth buster: How the \u201cmetabolism myth\u201d created a nation of snackers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e3b4295a-7b13-496e-ad74-d83098385593.jpg\" alt=\"Jennifer Bowden\" class=\"rounded-full object-cover h-[3.4375rem] w-[3.4375rem] min-w-[3.4375rem]\" data-test-ui=\"author--details__image\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/the-listener\/author\/jennifer-bowden\/\" class=\"text-sys-text-dark underline underline-offset-3\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" data-test-ui=\"author--link\" target=\"_blank\">Jennifer Bowden<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nutrition writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7<\/p>\n<p>17 Aug, 2026 06:04 PM4 mins to read<\/p>\n<p>\u200c<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.Subscribe now<\/p>\n<p>\u200c<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"flex cursor-pointer items-center gap-1.5 text-black\" data-test-ui=\"social-link--bookmark-above\" aria-label=\"bookmark\" id=\"social-link--bookmark-above\">Save<\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"m-0\">Share this article<\/p>\n<p class=\"mx-4 mt-2.5 text-xs font-normal leading-5 text-sys-text-premium\">Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.<\/p>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Copy Link<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Email<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Facebook<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Twitter\/X<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">LinkedIn<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Reddit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-test-ui=\"figure__caption\">Somewhere between bodybuilding culture, dieting trends and wellness media, many of us became convinced that missing a mid-morning snack might send our metabolism into hibernation. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A generation of adults was raised to fear hunger. The message was hard to miss: never get too hungry, always carry a snack and whatever you do, don\u2019t let your metabolism \u201cswitch off\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n         Conveniently, this advice also created a market for breakfast bars, snack packs, protein balls, yoghurt<br \/>\n         pouches and emergency desk snacks. Somewhere between the bodybuilding culture, dieting trends and wellness media, many of us became convinced that missing a mid-morning snack might send our metabolism into hibernation.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">Decades ago, researchers noticed people who had a \u201cnibbling\u201d eating pattern tended to have a lower body weight, leading to the suggestion that eating small snacks and meals frequently during the day might boost the body\u2019s metabolism. One theory was that the energy cost of digesting, absorbing and processing nutrients from several smaller meals might be greater than the energy cost of eating only a couple of bigger meals. This is known as the thermic effect of food. While a few studies suggested this might be true, the vast majority found the energy expended for snacking was the same as for fewer, larger meals. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">Added to that, studies involving people living in metabolic chambers, where researchers can directly measure 24-hour energy expenditure, produced a clearer result. Similar findings have emerged from studies using the \u201cdoubly labelled water method\u201d, another of the most accurate tools available for measuring energy expenditure. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">With the doubly labelled water method, participants drink a harmless dose of water containing special \u201ctracer\u201d forms of hydrogen and oxygen. Researchers then measure how quickly these tracers leave the body during the following days or weeks to calculate the participant\u2019s energy spend. Using this method, they found there was no difference in total 24-hour energy spend between \u201cnibbling\u201d meal patterns \u2013 many small meals, \u2013 and what they called \u201cgorging\u201d, \u2013 fewer larger meals, when the total energy intake was the same over 24 hours. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">These findings are important because the myth specifically claims meal frequency boosts metabolism. But if 24-hour energy spend doesn\u2019t rise, then metabolism hasn\u2019t been meaningfully \u201cboosted\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">Some research suggests highly irregular eating patterns may reduce the thermic response to meals compared with a more consistent eating routine. However, these studies are relatively small and typically look only at the immediate metabolic aftermath of a meal, not the whole 24-hour period. It seems though, that this small, debated effect of meal regularity may have become exaggerated into the sweeping claim that everyone must eat every two or three hours to \u201ckeep their metabolism running\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">In reality, your body is best served by listening to its hunger and fullness cues \u2013 eating when hungry, finishing a meal when full. For some people, this may require only three main meals a day; others will find it necessary to eat snacks to satiate their hunger. Certainly, some people do benefit from frequent eating, including athletes with high energy demands, pregnant women experiencing nausea, people with certain medical conditions and young children. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">Because children have relatively small stomachs and high energy requirements for growth and activity, nutritious snacks between main meals can help them maintain concentration and energy levels throughout the day. Research has found hunger and skipping breakfast in kids is associated with poorer attention, classroom behaviour and school engagement. So there are good reasons to keep kids well-fed and stocked with snacks and lunch on school days. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bcxzNmxesLZ\" style=\"display:none\">The idea of needing to stoke our metabolic fire with snacks is one of nutrition\u2019s most persistent myths. Somewhere along the way, ordinary hunger became something to fear and snacks became nutritional insurance. But evidence suggests otherwise. Whether you prefer three meals a day or a pattern that includes snacks is largely a matter of appetite, routine and personal preference. Your metabolism doesn\u2019t need constant feeding to stay awake \u2013 it will tick along quite happily between meals. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"flex cursor-pointer items-center gap-1.5 text-black\" data-test-ui=\"social-link--bookmark-below\" aria-label=\"bookmark\" id=\"social-link--bookmark-below\">Save<\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"m-0\">Share this article<\/p>\n<p class=\"mx-4 mt-2.5 text-xs font-normal leading-5 text-sys-text-premium\">Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.<\/p>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Copy Link<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Email<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Facebook<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Twitter\/X<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">LinkedIn<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Reddit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Bowden Nutrition writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 17 Aug, 2026 06:04 PM4 mins to read \u200c Subscribe to listenAccess&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1155103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4318],"tags":[108639,124067,314152,297482,314153,59139,776,1240,15457,105,9984,46255,4412,48424,1549,16764,93971,59016,57412,4434,3577,31020,227676,5693,314154,131,5598,16,15,314155,7763],"class_list":["post-1155102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-adults","tag-always","tag-buster","tag-carry","tag-created","tag-dont","tag-fear","tag-generation","tag-hard","tag-health","tag-how","tag-hunger","tag-hungry","tag-message","tag-metabolism","tag-miss","tag-myth","tag-nation","tag-never","tag-nutrition","tag-of","tag-off","tag-raised","tag-snack","tag-snackers","tag-switch","tag-the","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-whatever","tag-your"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117115101872892878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1155103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}