National Snack Day Date in the current year: March 4, 2024

A snack is a small portion of food eaten between regular meals to alleviate hunger. The English word snack was derived from the Middle Dutch word snacken, which means something akin to “eager to bite”. The first use of the word snack in the English language dates back to the early 15th century.

Peanuts were the first snack food to become popular in the United States. They were brought from South America and were incorporated into African-style cuisine on the plantations of the American South. After the Civil War, peanuts became popular in northern states as well, where they were sold at baseball games and in vaudeville theaters. Other popular snacks included pretzels introduced by the Pennsylvania Dutch and popcorn.

Throughout the 19th century, snack foods were primarily associated with unhygienic street vendors, immigrants, and saloons. Wealthy middle class Americans regarded any food that could be eaten without utensils as lower-class. The “snack revolution” occurred after World War II thanks to the development of new packaging that allowed to sell snack foods in hygienic and visually appealing packaging.

A lot of people associate snacks with high-calorie, low-nutrient packaged foods. However, a snack is any food consumed between meals that does not require a great deal of preparation, from nuts and fruits to sandwiches and leftovers. That is why it is wrong to label all snacks as junk food. While it is true that many packaged snacks are high in sugar and fat and low in nutrients, there are plenty of healthy snacks for you to munch on. Besides, in most cases it’s better to eat anything than listen to your stomach rumble until you can have a meal.

Popular snack foods include sliced or whole fruit, dried fruits, berries, vegetables (for example, celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes), cookies and crackers, candy and granola bars, cheese, cold cuts, various chips (potato, vegetable, corn, tortilla), cheese puffs, doughnuts, jerky, ice cream, milkshake, smoothies, muffins, cupcakes, popcorn, pretzels, yogurt, nuts, trail mix, cornflakes, various dips (hummus, guacamole), etc. The list of snack foods can go on and on for days.

How does one celebrate National Snack Day? For example, you can forego your regular meals for just one day in favor of trying as many snack foods as you can. To make it easier for your stomach to handle, alternate junk foods with healthy snacks. For example, after eating flavored potato chips, your next snack should be something like Greek yogurt or hummus and carrot sticks.

Another celebration idea is a snack party. Invite your friends over, ask everyone to bring their favorite snacks, and spend the evening tasting them all. You can turn it into a snack contest, ranking the snacks from the best to the... least good (we can’t bring ourselves to use the word “worst” when talking about snacks because any snack is a good snack; some are just better than others).