Some experts tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We’re also used to having lunch breaks and an evening meal too.

This is the modern way: but how healthy are three meals a day?

Fasting is good for everybody

First of all, let’s talk about restricting your food intake to an eight-hour window, as in, intermittent fasting.

12 hours a day without food allows our digestive system to rest, says Emily Manoogian, a clinical researcher in California.

Rozalyn Anderson, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, has studied the benefits of restricting our calorie intake.

“Having a fasting period every day could reap some of these benefits. It gets into the idea that fasting puts the body in a different state, where it's more ready to repair and surveil for damage, and clear misfolded proteins.”

Antonio Paoli, professor of exercise and sport sciences at the University of Padova in Italy, says that, “Fasting could also improve our glycaemic response, which is when our blood glucose rises after eating. Having a smaller blood glucose increase allows you to store less fat in the body.”

Only one meal a day?

Some argue it’s best to have only one meal a day. David Levitsky, professor at Cornell University in New York says, “There's a lot of data showing that, if I show you food or pictures of food, you're likely to eat, and the more frequently food is in front of you, the more you're going to eat that day.

“If you don’t eat breakfast, you’re going to eat fewer calories overall that day. Our physiology is built for feasting and fasting.”

Maybe two to three meals a day is best?

But Manoogan doesn’t recommend sticking to one meal a day, as this can increase the level of glucose in our blood when we’re not eating – known as fasting glucose. High levels of fasting glucose over a long period of time is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

“Instead, two to three meals a day is best – with most of your calories consumed earlier in the day. This is because eating late at night is associated with cardio-metabolic disease, including diabetes and heart disease.”

Our bodies release melatonin overnight to help us sleep – but melatonin also pauses the creation of insulin, which stores glucose in the body. The body uses melatonin to make sure we don’t take in too much glucose while we’re sleeping and not eating, says Manoogan.

Delaying breakfast is a good idea

Some evidence suggests we should wait an hour or two after waking up before tucking in.

Charrington-Hollins says “Breakfast first caught on in the 17th Century, when it became the luxury of those who could afford the food and the time for a leisurely meal.

“The concept today of breakfast being the norm [came about] during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century and its introduction of working hours.

Modern-day breakfast

“In the 1950s breakfast becomes how we recognise it today: cereal and toast. Prior to that we were happy to eat a piece of bread with jam.”

Manoogan again, “It’s best to not specify the best times to eat, as this can be difficult for people with responsibilities and irregular time commitments, such as those working night shifts.

“Telling people to stop eating by 7pm isn’t helpful because people have different schedules. If you try to give your body regular fast nights, try to not eat too late or early and try to not have huge final meals, this can usually help.”

Consistency is key

The body works in patterns, says Anderson. “We respond to the anticipation of being fed. One thing intermittent fasting does is it imposes a pattern, and our biological systems do well with a pattern.”

Working hours will be the driving force for change

Charrington-Hollins sees change on the horizon, “Over the centuries, we’ve become conditioned to three meals a day, but this is being challenged now and people’s attitude to food is changing. We have more sedate lifestyles, we’re not doing the level of work we were doing in the 19th Century, so we need fewer calories.

“I think, long-term, we’ll be reducing back to a light meal then a main meal, depending on what happens work-wise.”

See the full article at: bbc.com/future/article/20220412-should-we-be-eating-three-meals-a-day