Christmas article: Snacking preferences at the office during the Christmas season – a secret intervention study among diabetes researchers.

Introduction To quantify the effect of Christmas vs. New Year's resolutions season on snacking preferences by measuring intake of four different snacks. Methods Prospective ad libitum intervention snacking study with four combinations of sweet/savory and fatty/non-fatty snacks: cookies, candy, TUC crackers, and rye crackers. A snacking buffet, continuously refilled by a secret Santa, was provided during the Christmas season and New Year's Resolutions season by the secret Santas of the office. Participants were diabetes researchers and were not informed about the study before the end of data collection. The main outcome was daily intake (g) of the four snacks. Results In general, the intake of candy was high compared to the other snacks. The average intake of cookies was significantly higher during the Christmas season compared to New Year's resolution season (8 g/day/participant, p = 0.03), but decreased when approaching Christmas and increased again as time passed by after Christmas (although not significantly). The strongest correlation between the intake of snacks was found between the two sweet snacks, i.e., candy and cookies. Conclusion Researchers have a high preference for sweet foods, especially candy. Irrespective of the type of snack, the preference for cookies was high during the Christmas season but seemed to decrease with decreasing proximity to Christmas, hence, canceling Christmas will unlikely improve diet quality. In fact, we encourage further research to consider whether having Christmas all year could be a potential prevention strategy in the combat of the obesity pandemic. Funding none. Trial registration none.