What Is ‘Girl Dinner’?

If there’s one thing the internet is good at, it’s turning simple, everyday things into quirky trends. Take “Girl Dinner" — a phrase you may have seen paired with online videos of charcuterie boards, late-night snack plates or an odd combination of foods.

Girl Dinner became popular in the same way most online trends do: with people bonding over a similarity in how they do everyday things. In this case, it’s people connecting over how they eat a snack plate of their favorite foods instead of a traditional dinner.

The main focus of the trend is for dinner to feel more low maintenance. Seems harmless enough, right? Especially when cooking a whole meal may seem too exhausting after a long workday.

But is Girl Dinner actually healthy?

According to registered dietitian Julia Zumpano, RD, LD, it all comes down to frequency and quality. “It’s harmless if it happens maybe once a month,” she says. “But if it’s a more regular thing, then that’s where it can become an issue.”

Here’s what to know about the Girl Dinner trend and how to make sure your snacking habits are serving you as much as possible.

What is ‘Girl Dinner’ exactly?

‘Girl Dinner’ is a trendy term meant to describe an easy, low-pressure snack plate that you can eat instead of a “proper” dinner. The main pros of Girl Dinner are the convenience, which many of us are looking for when it comes to making meals.

The trend was born out of people (mostly women) sharing their different snack plates on social media. A typical Girl Dinner video can vary based on who’s sharing it. The most popular videos feature snack plates filled with veggies, charcuterie boards or pickled vegetables straight out of the jar.

In some cases, the snack plates are barer — featuring a couple of strawberries, some popcorn, a cheese stick and one hard-boiled egg.

Is there a concern over this trend?

While this trend is mostly harmless, there’s something to be said about the context of Girl Dinner and how it may influence an unhealthy diet or harmful eating habits.

These concerns include:

Lack of nutrition

As you may have guessed, not all Girl Dinners are created equal. That means not every combination of snacks is going to give you the nutritional benefits you need to feel full and healthy.

“You’re probably not going to be meeting your nutrient needs with popcorn and wine,” points out Zumpano. And you’re probably not getting the required vitamins, minerals and fiber intake either.

If you peek at any Girl Dinner hashtags, you’ll notice a lot of videos featuring chips, candy or foods that are high in sodium or trans fats. Unhealthy snacking isn’t a new thing, but it’s easy to look the other way if everybody on social media is calling a bag of chips “Girl Dinner.”

“Some of these snacks don’t provide enough nutrition, but some also feature ingredients that aren’t good for you,” Zumpano notes. “This includes things like saturated fats, trans fats, high amounts of sodium, simple refined sugars and so on.”

It messes with your perception of portion sizes

Snacking is called snacking for a reason. It may be something you eat throughout the day in between meals. Or it’s something you bring on a hike or a long car drive.

But when you start to replace a major meal of the day (like dinner) with snacking, this could become an issue, especially if it’s a less-than-healthy snack. Having an ounce or a half-an-ounce of potato chips as a snack is much different from eating a whole bag of chips for dinner, Zumpano points out.

“Not to say that chips are suddenly more healthy when eaten in small amounts,” she clarifies. “But it’s better if you’re eating a smaller amount or eating it only occasionally versus as a meal.”

It’s also important to consider that if you’re solely snacking throughout the day, and not having proper meals, you’re probably not feeding yourself enough healthy foods.

It may feed into disordered eating

The other concern over Girl Dinner is that it may impact how we eat as much as what we eat. “I would be concerned that it may lead to more extensive, poor or disordered eating habits,” says Zumpano.

Again, there’s no harm in healthy snacking or eating a smaller dinner when you aren’t feeling too hungry. But if you’re eating less than usual, avoiding hunger cues or overeating all in the name of Girl Dinner, then it’s not serving you well.

“And, depending on what you’re snacking on, I think it could lead to overconsumption of those foods because that’s all you’re eating,” she adds.

How to have a healthy Girl Dinner

So, how do you know if a Girl Dinner is meeting your nutritional needs and isn’t feeding into bad habits? The first way, Zumpano says, is to make sure you have a colorful plate. You want your collection of snacks to consist of things like green veggies, fresh fruit and lean protein.

“You want the three main components of your meal to be protein, fiber and healthy fats,” she advises.

First, you want to make sure you have enough protein when putting together snack plates. This includes foods like (in grams):

• Boiled eggs (6.3 g).
• Sliced turkey breast (2.2 g).
• Swiss cheese (7.7 g).
• Mozzarella (6.3 g).
• Non-fat cottage cheese (12 g).
• Greek Yogurt (9 g).
• Nuts like almonds (6 g), flax seeds (18.3 g) and walnuts (15.2 g).

Next is fiber, which you can get plenty of from a combination of foods like:

• Cherry tomatoes (2 g).
• Cucumbers (0.52 g).
• Celery sticks (1 g).
• Fruit like apples (3 g), blueberries (3.6 g) and bananas (3.9 g).
• Hummus dip (0.89 g).
• Edamame (8.1 g).
• Pickled vegetables (3.1 g).

Finally, you want to ditch the trans fats and instead fill your plate with healthy fats like:

• Avocado slices (30 g).
• Drizzle of olive oil (14 g).
• Coconut (14 g).

The combinations you can make with snack foods are endless. Try a bowl of nuts paired with slices of tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. Or maybe a mozzarella and tomato salad. Celery sticks and cucumbers with hummus. You can even go for something sweeter, like apple slices with almond butter.

“Multiple food groups can serve those three nutrients you need,” Zumpano reinforces.

The bottom line

If the idea of Girl Dinner makes you more excited about preparing meals, amazing. According to Zumpano, there’s nothing wrong with finding ways to have more fun with your food.

But it’s better to treat Girl Dinner as a fun way to reframe snacking rather than a replacement for balanced meals. Get the most out of your Girl Dinner by filling your plate with protein, fiber and healthy fats so you get all the nutrients you need.

Along with that, it’s also probably best to keep Girl Dinner more occasional — it makes it more special that way, right?