- Jessica Bradley
- （Jessica Bradley）
May 8, 2022
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Breakfast is a surprisingly modern invention (Credit: Getty Images)
You probably eat three meals a day – and modern life is designed around this way of eating. We were told breakfast was the most important meal of the day, there was a lunch break at work, and then social and family life revolved around dinner. But is this the healthiest way to eat?
Before thinking regarding how often we should eat a meal, scientists want us to think regarding when we shouldn’t.
Intermittent fasting—that is, limiting food intake to 8 hours—is becoming a huge area of research.
Emily Manoogian, a clinical researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, said that keeping the body from eating for at least 12 hours a day gives the digestive system a break. She published an article titled “When to Eat” in 2019.
Rozalyn Anderson, an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, studies the benefits of calorie restriction, which is associated with lower levels of inflammation in the body.
“There are some benefits to having a fasting period every day,” she said. “Fasting puts the body in a different state, making it easier to repair and monitor damage and clear misfolded proteins.” Misfolded proteins are wrong versions of normal proteins, normal proteins. are molecules that perform a number of important tasks in the human body. Misfolding of proteins can lead to many diseases.
Anderson believes that intermittent fasting is more in line with the way the body has evolved. It allows the body to rest so it can store food and send energy to where it is needed, triggering mechanisms to release energy from the body.
Fasting also improves blood sugar response, which is when our blood sugar rises following we eat, says Antonio Paoli, a professor of exercise and exercise science at the University of Padova in Italy. Lower blood sugar spikes allow you to store less fat in your body, he says.
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Compressing your diet into shorter times of the day may have health benefits if done safely (Credit: Getty Images)
“Our data suggest that eating dinner earlier and increasing fasting time can have positive effects on the body, such as better blood sugar control,” Pauley said.
Cells are better off with less sugar, because during the process of “glycation”, glucose is linked to proteins and forms “glycation end products,” compounds that cause inflammation in the body and increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease, Pauley said. .
But if intermittent fasting is a healthy way to eat, how many meals can you eat during a non-fasting period?
Some experts believe it’s best to eat one meal a day, including David Levitsky, a professor at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology in New York, who does just that of.
“There’s a lot of data showing that if you’re shown pictures of food, you’re likely to eat it, and the more often the food is put in front of you, the more you’ll eat,” he said.
This is because, before there were refrigerators and supermarkets, people would eat food as soon as it was available. Throughout history, humans used to eat one meal a day, including the ancient Romans, who ate only one meal at noon, says food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins.
Won’t one meal a day make us hungry? Not necessarily, Levitsky thinks, because hunger is usually a psychological feeling.
“When the clock says 12 noon, we may have the feeling of wanting to eat, or you may be used to having breakfast in the morning, but that’s nonsense. The data shows that if you skip breakfast, you eat fewer calories .”
“Our physiology is built for feasting and fasting,” he said. However, Levitsky does not recommend this method for people with diabetes.
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Some people believe that eating just one meal a day is best for your body and health (Credit: Getty Images)
But Manujian doesn’t recommend sticking to one meal a day, as it may increase the level of glucose in the blood — known as fasting blood sugar — when you’re not eating. Prolonged high levels of fasting blood sugar are a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Lowering blood sugar levels requires eating more than once a day, which prevents the body from thinking it’s hungry and releasing more glucose when it eventually eats, Manujian said.
It’s best to eat two to three meals a day — most of the calories are consumed earlier in the day, she says. This is because eating late at night has been linked to cardiometabolic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.
“If you eat most of your food early in the day, your body can use that ingested energy throughout the day instead of storing it as fat in your system,” Manujian said.
But she says you should also avoid eating too early in the morning, as it doesn’t take long enough to fast. In addition, eating too early following waking up disrupts the circadian rhythm, also known as the biological clock. The biological clock determines how the body processes food throughout the day, the researchers said.
Our bodies release melatonin at night to help us fall asleep, but melatonin also suspends insulin production, which stores glucose in the body. Melatonin is released during sleep, and the body uses it to make sure we don’t take in too much glucose during sleep and when we’re not eating, Manujian said.
“If you eat calories when melatonin is high, glucose levels are high. Eating a lot of calories at night is a major challenge for the body because if insulin is suppressed, the body can’t store glucose properly.”
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Getting into the habit of eating large meals late at night can interfere with blood sugar levels (Credit: Getty Images)
And we all know that prolonged high levels of glucose increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
This doesn’t mean we should skip breakfast altogether, but some evidence suggests that we should wait an hour or two following waking up. It’s also worth remembering that breakfast is a relatively new concept.
“The ancient Greeks were the first to introduce the concept of breakfast, where they ate bread soaked in wine, then had a frugal lunch, then a hearty dinner,” Charrington-Hollins said.
Charrington-Hollins said breakfast was originally exclusive to the aristocracy. First popular in the 17th century, breakfast was a luxury for those who might afford food and had time to eat a leisurely meal in the morning.
“During the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of working hours in the 19th century, breakfast was the norm,” Charrington-Hollins said. Such a routine would fit three meals a day. “For the working class, the first meal is simple – it might be street vendor food or bread.”
But following the war, food supplies dwindled and the idea of a full breakfast was out of the question, and many people skipped it. “The idea of three meals a day is outdated,” Charrington-Hollins said. “Breakfast in the 1950s became what we know today: cereal and toast. Until then, we would have happily eaten a slice of bread with jam.”
So science seems to suggest that the healthiest way to eat is to eat two to three meals a day with extended fasts in the evening, not eating too early or too late in the day, and not eating early in the day more calories. But is this realistic?
Manujian said it’s best not to specify optimal meal times because it’s difficult for those with responsibilities and irregular lives, such as those who work night shifts.
“It’s useless to tell people not to eat following 7pm because people’s routines are different. If you’re trying to get your body to fast regularly, don’t eat too late or too early, don’t eat big meals. People can accept at least some of it,” she said.
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Small changes in our daily eating habits can add up over time with health benefits, but consistency is key (Credit: Getty Images)
“Delay the first meal, and make the last meal early, and you’ll see dramatic changes in the long run. Sticking to it without changing other things can make a big difference.”
But no matter what changes are made, the researchers agree that consistency is critical.
“The body has a rhythm,” Anderson said. “We respond to the anticipation of eating. Intermittent fasting creates a pattern, and our biological systems work well in that pattern.” The body uses cues to predict eating behavior, so when we eat It handles food best when it comes to things.
When it comes to how many meals we think are normal, Charrington-Hollins believes that change may be on the horizon.
“We’ve been used to three meals a day for centuries, but now that’s being challenged and attitudes towards food are changing. We have a calmer way of life and the level of work is not as good as in the 19th century, so it takes less Calories.”
“I think in the long term, humans will go back to a light meal, a staple meal, depending on the work side of things. Our work hours will be the driving force.”
“After the end of the post-war food rationing system, people started the habit of three meals a day because suddenly food was plentiful. But that era has passed, and now there is food everywhere.”
