Gut Health & Snacking Between Meals

Our gut is a rather fragile yet super strong part of our body. Our intestines keep the toxic sludge that passes through from entering places it shouldn’t and properly escorts it out through the waste cycle, absorbing what nutrients are necessary. 


Snacking between meals might sound like something only people on diets are concerned with but it could be something that is ruining your gut health unless of course you’re a grazer. Grazers consume meals much like our ancestors or animals spend the day eating only a little of this and a little of that throughout rather than eating three square meals. Grazers eat more like they’re snacking all day but only small amounts at a time. 

Is It Harmful?

Snacking is not always harmful but for those out there struggling with gut related issues such as bloating, IBS, gas, diarrhea, constipation, acne, anxiety, and mood swings then it can be more harmful than you’d ever think. Consider this, the digestion process is a complex process and it takes the body a decent amount of time to get through the process from beginning to end. The digestion process takes about 2 hours time from ingestion to digestion completion. If a person is already experiencing gastrointestinal issues or digestive issues then snacking between meals can have a heavy negative impact on the entire body system. 


Our gut needs time for a full digestion cycle, healing, repairs, and replenishing. One way to put it is like this, imagine you’re doing a load of laundry and you’ve got all of the proper detergent, softener, bleach compartments full to the proper levels and the washing machine is in the process of starting the rinse cycle mode and you open the washer and add more dirty clothes to that load. Something in that process isn’t going to work right and it could cause a chain of events that simply make more work. 

What Can Happen?

Our gut has to work harder and it requires more energy when we snack between meals which means the process will only become harder throughout time. It’s important to consider how much food was eaten at the last meal before deciding if it’s a good time to add more food to the process. Let’s say you’ve just had lunch about an hour ago but those taste buds are craving a flavor sensation. Your gut is already in the process of breaking food down etc. giving into that craving is going to disrupt the entire process and add more food that isn’t even broken down as much as the rest of the food from lunch.


Our body can only do so much so fast. A sweep is done every so often that wipes out the gut and we eliminate the waste. Well, the sweeps aren’t being as thorough because there’s too much going on and only so much can be eliminated at a time. The excess food and bacteria left behind create fermentation and bacterial overgrowth. Through time the negative symptoms will worsen and until the condition is managed properly the body will start dealing with more and more issues both inside and outside the gut.