Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: jack_ on 18/03/2019 09:55:56

Title: How many times a day should we eat?
Post by: jack_ on 18/03/2019 09:55:56

Alex is feeling peckish and wants to know:

What does science have to say about how many times a day we should eat?

I've read how ancient Romans ate most of their food at midday, while the food timing of our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors was probably easy constant access to food at some times, that was broken up by long fasting and belly-popping feasts. Is there some real science on the topic?

What do you know about the subject and can you help?

Title: Re: How many times a day should we eat?
Post by: Bored chemist on 18/03/2019 19:51:58

The fact that we survived both scenarios suggests that it doesn't matter much.

Title: Re: How many times a day should we eat?
Post by: evan_au on 18/03/2019 20:20:00

For reasons of dental decay, I've heard it said that a few meals is better than continuous grazing on sugary food.

Apparently, it takes some time for saliva to wash the sugars out of your teeth; this slows down bacterial growth and dental decay.

If you just keep eating, there is a continual supply of sugars, and decay continues unabated.

Title: Re: How many times a day should we eat?
Post by: spruce on 21/03/2019 08:52:06

I suppose it depends on the individual body characteristics, but approx. ~3-5 times

Title: Re: How many times a day should we eat?
Post by: alancalverd on 21/03/2019 20:08:28

The best time for vegetarians and small animals to eat is all the time, for large carnivores, as infrequently as possible. For omnivirous humans, I guess continuous grazing plus a few meat snacks is optimum..