FOUR in five Brits have no idea how many calories their favourite snacks contain — from a bag of nuts to a packet of crisps.
Research of 2,000 adults revealed a quarter cite snack time as one of their favourite pats of the day, with nine per cent even claiming to spend hours thinking about their snack choices.
A fifth also reckon to feel like they’re winning when they find out a snack they’ve eaten contains less calories than they thought.
The research, commissioned by Walkers, also revealed that only a quarter were aware how many calories are in a banana, or handful (30g) of nuts.
And only a fifth know how many calories are in a small bag (30g) of popcorn.
It also emerged just two per cent claim not to snack at all, while the average UK adult consumes up to two snacks a day, with more than a third consuming three or more.
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Yet, snacking habits are changing, with 40 per cent claiming to have switched to buying snacks or crisps containing 100 calories or less, and one in 10 citing ‘double digit calories’ as their key snacking criteria.
And 97 per cent of Brits class themselves as ‘crisp eaters’ – half (46 per cent) eat them at least a few times each week, with 14 per cent of people eating them daily.
While only one in 10 — 11 per cent — are aware there are 100 calories or less in multipack bags of Wotsits and Monster Munch.
Josephine Taylor at Walkers said: “We know how a good snack can make or break someone’s day.
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“We’re always striving to provide extensive choice when it comes to snacks, to make sure we’re meeting the nation’s snacking needs.
“Hopefully this knowledge will be seen as good news for UK crisp lovers."
According to the snack brand’s data, chocolate (19 per cent) and crisps (17 per cent) are the nation’s all-time favourite snacks, followed by fruit (eight per cent) and cake (seven per cent), while between 3 and 4pm (24 per cent) is the time most people will opt to eat one.
When it comes to choosing lunch snacks, crisps were the nation’s top choice, with 46 per cent choosing them as their lunch snack of choice, followed by fruit (39 per cent) and chocolate (22 per cent).
Aside from double digit calories, other top snacking criteria includes items that are tasty (64 per cent), affordable (36 per cent), require zero preparation (21 per cent) and don’t smell or offend those around them (eight per cent).
Meanwhile one in five (18 per cent) claim snacks must be crunchy, and 11 per cent seek out snacks that are salty (17 per cent) or sweet (13 per cent).
If forced to opt for something that doesn’t meet their snacking criteria – 18 per cent feel like they need another, better snack to make up for it, while others claim to feel upset at the wasted snacking opportunity (10 per cent).
Almost half the nation (43 per cent) claim to feel ‘satisfied’ with themselves after a good snack, while others claim to feel a sense of achievement (four per cent).
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