Do We Really Need to Eat Three Meals a Day?

Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are three common meals most of us have during any given day, with little to no variation. But have you ever wondered why is it like that? Is there any real reason we typically eat three meals a day or is it just something we do out of habit?

As it turns out, having three meals per day is more related to popular culture than what our bodies biologically need. This was confirmed by Yale University’s history professor Paul Freedman who wrote Food: The History of Taste.

In his book, Freedman writes that there’s no real reason we eat three meals per day from a biological point of view. Having breakfast, lunch, and dinner fits our cultural patterns and enables us to sit down and eat a meal with the whole family, every day or once in a while. 

Lately, however, the pattern has started to change. Freedman notes that with people working more and more hours and having inconsistent schedules, we’re slowly moving away from the common concept of having three meals a day. Today, we’re more likely to snack throughout the day and have a big meal in the evening after work.