-

THREE MEALS A DAY: HISTORY AND SCIENCE






The idea of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day hasn't always been the standard. In fact, it's a relatively recent habit that has taken hold, mainly due to changes in society, work schedules, and culture—not because our bodies absolutely need it.

Before industrialization, meal routines looked very different. Take medieval Europe: most people ate twice a day, with a hearty meal around midday and something lighter later on. The three-meal structure only really caught on as people moved into cities and factory work required everyone to be on the same timetable (Carroll, "Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal").

Western countries have spread this three-meal approach, but it's far from a global rule. Across time and cultures, when and how often people eat has shifted based on local customs, what food is available, and what's expected by society—not some universal biological need (Chiva, British Journal of Nutrition).

When it comes to health, there's no solid evidence that three meals a day is essential or even ideal for everyone. Studies of early humans point toward flexibility—eating when food was around, not by the clock. Research by M.P. Mattson and others shows our brains and bodies can handle long gaps between meals just fine, and that meal frequency is shaped by culture more than biology (Mattson et al., PNAS).

Modern research hasn't landed on a single "healthiest" meal pattern. Some studies hint that eating less often or trying intermittent fasting could help metabolic health, but it really depends on the person. What works for one body might not work for another (The Lancet; Nutrients). For example, one clinical trial found that eating just one meal a day helped lean adults lose weight and changed some metabolic markers, but didn't make them weaker in the short run (Frontiers in Physiology).

In short, eating three times a day is a convention, not a biological rule. The right eating pattern is the one that fits your lifestyle, needs, and preferences. What you eat and how much you eat matter more than how many times you eat.

Good nutrition is the backbone of long-term health. If you want advice tailored to your goals, visit us at Protime-Fitness.org and start your journey to better living.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

B12 MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.

-
Image
  B12 MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. Worms don't wiggle when they have Alzheimer's disease. Yet something helped worms with the disease hold onto their wiggle in Professor Jessica Tanis's lab at the University of Delaware. In solving the mystery, Tanis and her team have yielded new clues into the potential impact of diet on Alzheimer's, the dreaded degenerative brain disease afflicting more than 6 million Americans. A few years ago, Tanis and her team began investigating factors affecting the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. They were doing genetic research with  C. elegans , a tiny soil-dwelling worm subject of numerous studies. Expression of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease, paralyzes worms within 36 hours of reaching adulthood. While the worms in one petri dish in Tanis's lab were rendered completely immobile, the worms of the same age in the adjacent petri dish still had their wiggle, documented as ...
Read more

EXTREME HEAT MAY NEGATIVELY IMPACT COGNITIVE HEALTH

-
Image
  EXTREME HEAT MAY NEGATIVELY IMPACT COGNITIVE HEALTH          July 2023 was the hottest month, with cities like Phoenix experiencing record-breaking heat waves for weeks. A new study finds that ongoing extreme heat can worsen cognitive decline among vulnerable groups -- particularly Black older adults and those living in poor neighborhoods. "Our research finds that cumulative exposure to extreme heat can undermine cognitive health, but it does so unequally across the population," said Eunyoung Choi, a postdoctoral associate at the NYU School of Global Public Health and the first author of the study, published in the  Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health . Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., claiming more lives each year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning combined. Young children and older adults are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Recent stud...
Read more

Diabetes drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

-
Image
    Diabetes drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. The study finds people taking the drugs have fewer biomarkers, slower cognitive decline. People taking certain drugs to lower blood sugar for type 2 diabetes had less amyloid in the brain, a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease compared to people with type 2 diabetes who are not taking the drugs and those without diabetes. The new study, published in the August 11, 2021, online issue of  Neurology , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, also found people taking these drugs, called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, showed slower cognitive decline than people in the other two groups. In people with type 2 diabetes, the body no longer efficiently uses insulin to control blood sugar. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, also known as gliptins, can be prescribed when other diabetes drugs do not work. They help control blood sugar when combined with diet and exercise. "People with diabetes have been shown to ...
Read more