Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: jack_ on 18/03/2019 09:55:56
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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?
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The fact that we survived both scenarios suggests that it doesn't matter much.
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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.
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I suppose it depends on the individual body characteristics, but approx. ~3-5 times
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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..