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How many meals do you really need to eat

It is surprising how much our ancestors knew about proper dieting. It seems that despite all our technological advancements, we have forgotten the simple art of nutrition. It seems like people in the old times had it right when it came to staying healthy, but we decided to ignore their wisdom.
A number of meals on plates
As far back as the Roman civilization, people used to eat only one meal per day. They worked hard all day long and rewarded themselves with a delicious supper in the evening. This tradition was followed by almost all civilizations across the Mediterranean for more than a thousand years.

We have to ask ourselves, how many people actually “reward” themselves with food anymore? How many of us treat a meal as an occasion to savor with our near and dear ones? How many of us actually take the time to let the body digest what it has eaten before stuffing ourselves again?

At the height of their prowess, the soldiers of the Greek and Roman empires were fit enough to be athletes. They carried tremendous weights over long distances and ate only one full meal per day. They had a small breakfast at dawn, and then a more complete meal at the end of the day.

Confronted with this evidence, it is hard to believe the preoccupation our generation seems to have with food. Most of us eat entirely too much every day. There is no metabolic advantage to eating 6 small meals per day as many fad diets would have you believe.

If you frequently lack energy and focus, you might want to take a hard look at your eating habits. How many meals you need to have per day is completely up to you. If you find that you are building your life around your eating habits, then you need to stop.

A lot of diets prescribe strict meal timings for eating certain things. This is not productive if you need to postpone important activities because your diet plan tells you to eat at a specific time. Your body doesn’t benefit any more by eating a bowl of vegetables at exactly 6.00 pm then it would if you eat it at any other time during the day.

In summation, if you are unhappy with the way you feel during the day, you might need to take a look at what you are eating. As long as your body gets the appropriate amount of nutrients per day, you need not worry about meal timings or meal sizes. Whenever in doubt, keep it simple.

Copyright © Rohit on NiceAnswers.com 2017

Editor's Note: Here are some additional resource links in relation to diet and eating habits;
Here are some dieting tips
Information on improving eating habits
Dietary guidelines by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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