Is snacking the new smoking?

The way we eat is changing. Incrementally, between-meal snacking has increased over time, and our busy, on-the-run lifestyles and changing social norms fuel the consumption of convenience foods and calorie-dense snacks. The societal normalising of snacking behaviour has myriad influences, but the marketing narrative that snacking is “good for you” needs to be challenged. Cigarette promotion of yesteryear seems unconscionable today, but the way snack foods are now pitched to the public has some eerie parallels. The pervasiveness of aggressive targeted marketing, celebrity endorsement, social normalisation narrative, and dismissal of health consequences should give us pause for thought.