Lindy wrote to me and asked
what are the optimal times of the day to eat and the intervals between eating.
Now, I could press the “nutrition guru, read my bestseller” button and make
stuff up to sound knowledgeable. Or I could tell the truth. Let’s see how you go
with the latter.
The best time to eat is
when you are hungry. Yes, a crazy concept, and it won’t catch on, but it seems
to make physiological sense. Then stop eating when you are no longer hungry.
Whether that is a snack or a meal.
This is radically different
to the “Ooh, looks nice, must try some”, “Hey, 1 o’clock, burger time”, “Man, I’m
chockers, couldn’t fit in another morsel” way of dining while we live in a
society with abundant food available 25/8.
I am being serious. Your
body knows the best time to eat and drink. Nature comes with a clever operating
system, complete with two inbuilt programs called hunger and thirst. Standard in
all primates. Quite brilliant really.
Yes, it is more
complicated than that. There are people who don’t experience fullness and
always feel hunger. There are environmental cues that stimulate us to eat,
whether we are hungry or not. The sight of Chocolate Bavarian seems to be able to over-ride
all appetite cues. However, if you feel you have control of your eating most of
the time, then eat when you experience hunger and stop when the feeling goes
away. This is likely to be before you are full. We don’t have to complicate the
message any further.
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