Spreading out a snack
 

In "The Schwarzbein Principle II", Dr S recommends balanced snacks that contain 15 carb grams. My question is whether it hurts to spread this snack out over 2-3 hours rather than eating it all at once - like eating a handful of peanuts every so often. In other words, instead of the whole snack at say 2:30pm, eating it in small parts from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.

I know she warns in Ch 11 Step One: Healthy Nutrition that if you skip or delay meals your adrenaline and cortisol levels increase (which is bad), but does spreading the snack out (rather than skipping or delaying it) cause the same effect?

If there's a problem with it, what exactly is the problem?

Thanks for any input or pointers to resources that may help.
Jim

That's a good question. It's not something I've thought about, but I would think you should try it and see what happens.

I tend to graze in general anyways, so maybe I do the same thing and just haven't noticed.

Is there a reason you are doing this? Are you eating and working at the same time?

Spreading snacks out over 2-3 hours on Schwarzbein diet
 

I think it is important to make sure you are not eating your protein separate from your carbs. It is important to because protein (and fats) lowers the gylcemic index of carbs, resulting in less of a glucose rise, and thus less of an insulin rise. Nuts or nut butters, which have pro, carbs, and fats combined in one food would likely be okay spread out. But eating a cracker or fruit and then eating protein portion of your snack an hour later is probably not a good idea, especially if you are insulin resistant. You also need to be careful not to eat too little food this way. It is important to get adequate protein and fats for maintaining and building lean body mass and that you are not eating less by grazing. The last thing you need to be careful of is that you meals and snacks are not running into each other so then you get a larger serving of carbs at a given meal because you are eating a snack and meal on top of each other. This could be more carbs at one time, especially if you are insulin resistant.