Americans Snacking More Than Ever, Survey Shows

A new study carried out by The Hartman Group has painted an interesting picture of Americans' snacking behaviors and their attitudes toward eating between meals, MediaPost reports.

While the findings aren't necessarily shocking — just about everyone is a snacker — it's certainly interesting to break down snacking habits into real-time facts and figures.

For example, the average American (41 percent) snacks twice per day; 17 percent snack once, 24 percent three times, 13 percent four times, and 4 percent eat five or more snacks per day. And 56 percent of Americans snack between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., while 51 percent snack between 5 p.m. and midnight. About 30 percent snack at home, while 12 percent snack at work and 7 percent snack "on the go."

Nearly 30 percent eat a snack when they're looking for something "indulgent," and about the same amount just snack as an impulse. And 16 percent snack when they don't feel like cooking, and 14 percent snack when they feel "stressed or anxious" (although something tells us that number should be much higher).

In an interesting bit of irony, the majority of snackers found it important to only snack on healthy food items, but the most commonly consumed snacks were chips and soda.