To snack or not to snack? That is the question for doctors and for you, as you try to decide what to do about your hungry stomach when it’s nowhere close to mealtime. The short answer is: I have the snack.

Can snacking help you drop a few pounds? Yes. A smart snack can prevent the kind of unhealthy over-eating that comes from extreme hunger. “Your body is always talking to you — you just have to listen,” said medicine specialist Robert Graham. “So if you’re starting to feel a bit hungry, don’t wait.” But you can’t grab any old snack. Chips and cookies boost your blood sugar quickly, which leads to the sugar crash. Instead, try nuts and fruits.

Snacking is a way to add a variety of nutrients (营养) to your diet. Maya Feller, a registered dietitian nutritionist, says you can’t go wrong with a handful of mixed nuts, which can help your heart. Snacking on protein-rich foods helps to keep your muscle strong and staminal. The body can absorb only a limited amount of protein per meal, so distributing protein throughout the day via snacking can maximize protein intake.

If you’ve ever been unhappy with someone when you were hungry, you know that food can influence your mood. Snacking helps you avoid that position, resulting in fewer mood swings and better focus. Some studies have shown that healthy snacking may also improve memory and cognitive performance and help with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. If you wait too long to eat between meals, your body thinks it’s starving and releases the stress hormone to remind you, which can produce negative moods. In addition to drinking water, snacking on fresh fruits can help your brain.

There are different ways to go about (处理) this whole snacking things. Choose a healthy, filling option in an appropriate size, and the benefits don’t stop at weight loss and improved health; your general approach to life might be affected. When you snack mindfully, it’s easier to take a deep breath, focus on exactly what you’re eating at that moment, and enjoy the day around you too.

Kids who like noodles are in luck in Italy. School lunch almost always begins with a "primo" of pasta-think penne（意大利面食）with tomatoes and cheese. That's typically followed by a protein-packed main dish, such as roasted chicken, accompanied by a veggie side. Finally, there's dessert, usually fruit. But what if kids would rather eat a homemade sandwich？

That question became the basis of the "Sandwich Case". This is a legal fight started by a group of parents who had gotten fed up with the price and quality of school meals. Italy's top court settled the matter：Families do not have the right to send food to school. The main problem the judges have with lunchboxes is that they can create divisions.

Each nation has its own take on how to handle the meaty issue of feeding students. In Australia, for example, many schools don't have a cafeteria. And, of course, packing a school lunch to take to school is as American as apple pie. However, more American kids would be better off with school lunch for their parents think cafeteria meals are healthier than what an average parent packs.

Students in low-income families qualify for free or reduced-price meals. So there can be a stigma around who's participating, meaning kids without a lunchbox can feel singled out for being poor. One way to avoid that problem is providing meals to everyone for free. In Sweden, where students chow down on a hot main dish and their pick of vegetables from a salad bur, no one needs lunch money.

The country with a system most similar to Italy's is its neighbor. France, where kids are expected to eat their school's multi-course meals, with almost no exceptions. "It's for a healthy diet, but also for cultural aspects and pleasure, "says Florent Vieux, general director of the French research group MS Nutrition. "When my son doesn't want carrots for the starter, he doesn't eat. At the beginning it's difficult, "he says. "Then day after day, he eats more carrots because he knows he has no other choice."

As technology and supermarkets have made buying food easier and more convenient than ever, researchers believe people are growing more distant from the food they eat. As knowledge about crops, food production, and healthy eating is lost over generations, some school districts are looking to reconnect children with their food by educating them in a garden setting. Researchers observed one “school garden” in a rural Midwestern school district, in which teachers held classes outside in a garden one or two times per month.

“We have lost touch with a lot of basic skills related to food, which raises concerns for the future of food production and the eating habits of our children. And we wanted to see if allowing children to ‘taste’ their education in a garden setting could have the potential to reorient (重新定位) them toward environment and health issues that will only become more important as they grow. This case study showed that the answer is ‘yes’. The potential is there.” says Mary Hendrickson, an associate professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

The idea of school gardens is not new, but most of these programs have occurred in wealthy urban settings. Beginning as an after-school club led by volunteers, the program eventually changed to the control of the school district. The district joined it into the school day an average of one or two times per month, when students would attend classes outside surrounded by fruits and vegetables. Each grade level received their own garden.

Researchers found that school garden education affected the children beyond the classroom, with students expecting healthier choices on the school’s salad bar and starting their own gardens at home, as well as generally expressing more interest in food production and preparation, encouraging them to develop an appreciation for fresh, healthy foods.

“What we heard from the people involved in this program is that their children are more interested in eating healthier food and have choices of food systems like organics and farmer’s markets, giving children more control over their lives.” says Mary.

“I think that people recognize that we are a rural community, but we are not healthy eaters,” one participant said. “We do have cattle and chickens, but we don’t have gardens because when I was growing up … we didn’t talk about healthy food. Nobody really grew food.”