Mini Essay: The Myth of Three Meals

Three meals a day and snacks is a complete myth. There is so much evidence against it.

With the way we live now (i.e. sedentary lifestyles, food at our fingertips) three meals a day and snacks is excessive and unnecessary.  Long ago, around the time of most of our ancestors, extended periods of fasting was part of everyday life. Hunter-gatherers fasted often, and seasonally, as food was not always widely available to them. This is also true of Indigenous people, among other cultures around the world, who still partake in the practice today. They know that it has regenerative, healing qualities, and that frequent fasting, even for ceremonies and whatnot, is beneficial for our bodies.

The three-meal-a-day notion originated in the middle ages, and even then people were very active (farming, labouring, etc.), "breakfast" and "supper" were small, meatless meals, and lunch was the heartiest meal of the day. As humans we are not physically built to consume and digest this much food, especially with the inactive lives we lead to this day---in North America anyway, although I'm sure other countries are also affected by meal delivery services, increasing use of cars, less walkable cities, the ability to be entertained in our enclosed homes, never venturing out or touching grass, sitting on our asses (yes, this is a personal attack on some). There is something inherently wrong with that, but this isn't about that. This is about adapting what we eat to our activity level.

The "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" notion was invented by Kelloggs as a cash grab so that you would buy their cereal. Metabolically, it doesn't matter whether you eat 1 meal, 6 small meals, or just graze throughout the day (which is intuitive eating by the way---you eat when you're hungry, not structured meals). It doesn't matter when in the day you eat either, your body doesn't care, your metabolism doesn't change. There's just more and more research to prove this.

Essentially, if you don't feel like eating three meals a day and snacks, don't. I think we've lost a lot of individuality in the food section of our life, and are trying to conform to an accepted and pushed standard that doesn't work for everyone because we all have different needs. We're all different sizes, heights, have different conditions, and also just different appetites.

Personally I was raised to be a frugal person. I'm heading into college in the fall and it's such a relief knowing I can get the cheapest meal plan and still be completely in over my head in money to spend on food because I'm not worried about eating three meals a day because I know that I don't personally need that.

I love to snack but I get full easily. I intermittently fast: I rarely ever eat breakfast, have a big balanced lunch if I feel like it, and just have small, nutritious stuff for the rest of the day. If I don't feel hungry enough for lunch, I just have something small and then I have a bigger afternoon or evening meal, depending on when I'm hungry for it.

Amanda Mull from The Atlantic article "There's no real reason to eat 3 meals a day" calls this a Big Meal. This is essentially the OMAD method, or 22:2 IF method. I have not often tried this out for myself, as I've grown up in a family very set in their nutritional beliefs, and not willing to change this far down the line. In my years in this home I have not been allowed to have my own eating needs and schedule, nor have I been allowed time to experiment with it.

It is the experimenting with myself and my appetite that I need most. There have been a few weekends here and there, particularly recently in my near adulthood, where my family has gone out of town. Those weekends alone have been enlightening, as I have had to fend for myself eating-wise. I have been able to eat at my leisure, prepare food solely for myself, and most importantly, eat my meals when I'm hungry for it, not at the convenience of the entire family.

And yes, I understand that matching eating schedules in busy families is a challenge, and parents are responsible for the nutrition of their children, but there are less harmful ways to incorporate that into family life. I should not have to be shamed when I'm not hungry enough to finish my plate at dinner. Especially as an adult, when my metabolism is steadily slowing down. This starts with debunking the three-meal-a-day social construct.

I don't believe we give children any time to develop their own intuitive eating patterns, and these very rigid rules around food foster grounds for eating disorders---I've seen it happen in my own family. Conversely, I have a girlfriend who has little to no food rules, who wasn't really raised with rigid rules around meal times. She's not a breakfast person, sometimes she'll eat a big meal at lunch, and just snack on whatever she's hungriest for throughout the day. That said, she's not healthy about it, which enforces my point. She just doesn't think about it.

A cheeseburger, large fry and sprite from Five Guys is about 800 calories at least, 1,000 calories at most. She will eat it without thinking, but she's slim because she eats it because she feels like eating it, and can stop anytime she feels full and put it away, even throw it away. She stays slim because she fasts, sometimes until 1 pm, without thinking about it. She is not forced to eat breakfast, because it's just not her thing.

She never confuses thirst or boredom for hunger. As a child she was never yelled at at the dinner table to clean her plate even when she pleaded that she wasn't hungry anymore. These things get ingrained in your psyche, and I envy her ability to understand her hunger levels thoroughly and hold herself back, when I could naturally binge until I threw up, being so unfamiliar with my own intrinsic appetite. 

I believe we need a nutritional revolt. I believe what we need is enough evidence for us to start raising our children with different, healthier, less rigid views on food. There is too much evidence nowadays that our ways should be changed. There are too many individuals who are encountering disordered eating habits. Periodic fasting should not be taboo, but normalised. Three meals a day should not be normalised, but forgotten. 

References

Bradley, J. (2022, April 17). Should we be eating three meals a day? BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220412-should-we-be-eating-three-meals-a-day

Butler, K., Velasquez, M., Brownell, B., Drum, K., Heffernan, S., Mencimer, S., Vesoulis, A., Johnson, J., McShane, J., Friedman, D., & Lurie, J. (2015, March 4). Why You Should Stop Eating Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner – Mother Jones. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/03/against-meals-breakfast-lunch-dinner/

Mull, A. (2021, March 5). Your Weird Pandemic Meals Are Probably Fine. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/your-weird-pandemic-meals-are-probably-fine/618210/