If you get hungry mid-morning, you may be better off eating lunch early rather than munching on something to tide you over. A study suggests snacking between breakfast and lunch could be a sign that your eating is out of control.

MSNBC relays a study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which says early snacking seems to indicate the presence of the destructive habit of “mindless eating,” which some people do out of habit rather than to satisfy hunger. The research focused on overweight and obese women between the ages of 50 and 75, and found that the early snacking didn’t decrease the amount the subjects ate at lunch.

If you’re trying to lose or maintain your weight, you can use strategically timed, low-calorie snacks to fend off hunger and avoid overeating during mealtimes. It’s the munching high-calorie foods at all hours of the day that gets you in trouble.

Morning snacking may be damaging your diet [MSNBC]

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