7 snacks for a longer & healthier life | Prof Sarah Berry

February 19, 2026·1 hr 1 min·5 clips

Snacking makes up 25% of our daily calories, but most of us treat it as an afterthought—discover why it's a hidden health opportunity.

Snacking accounts for roughly 25% of daily calorie intake in the UK and US — the equivalent of a fourth meal — yet receives far less nutritional attention than breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Professor Sarah Berry has led one of the most comprehensive snacking studies using the ZOE cohort, tracking snack quality, quantity, frequency, and timing alongside health outcomes including body weight, blood pressure, blood fat levels, cholesterol, and gut microbiome composition. The study's central finding: snack frequency per se is not the problem. Even people having multiple snacks throughout the day showed no negative health effects as long as those snacks were high quality. Timing, however, matters significantly. People who snacked after 9pm — approximately 30% of snackers — had higher abdominal fat, higher inflammation, and worse cholesterol levels even when eating healthy foods. This points to a circadian component in metabolism: calories consumed later in the evening are processed differently than those consumed earlier. The quality problem is substantial: 75% of people's snacks come from what Berry classifies as unhealthy foods — heavily processed, high in salt, saturated fat, and sugar, and low in protein and fiber. Perhaps more concerningly, 40% of people who eat healthy main meals eat unhealthy snacks, effectively undercutting the benefits of their careful meal planning. The conversation covers the Mediterranean pattern of eating more calories earlier in the day, the psychological drivers of snacking (habit, energy-seeking, treats), and why the perceived energy boost from typical snacks is illusory. Berry's seven recommended snacks for longevity include nuts (especially walnuts and almonds), seeds (chia, flax, pumpkin), fermented foods such as yogurt and kefir, dark chocolate with high cocoa content, fresh fruit paired with protein, vegetables with hummus, and whole grain options like oatcakes.

As heard by us

A steady reset on snacks, sugar, and what healthy really means.

This episode treats snacking as part of everyday eating, not a side note to feel bad about. Sarah Berry makes the case for a fourth meal, points out that snacking can account for around a quarter of daily energy intake, and shows how better choices can support health instead of…

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You want snacks that help, not snacks that hide in plain sight.

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