How did we end up eating three meals a day in the western world, large parts of asisa and africa?

Yes there are cultures which eat only twice, or more often, but the 3 meals policy seams to be far more in use then anything else.

How did that happen?
I usually eat only once a day maybe twice(by hunger), and the early hunter-gatherers may have had problems to do so every day, so what did the agricultural revolution etc. do to us so that we eat 3x a day?

Alexander80 - 25 August 2012 09:58 AM

How did we end up eating three meals a day in the western world, large parts of asisa and africa?

Yes there are cultures which eat only twice, or more often, but the 3 meals policy seams to be far more in use then anything else.

How did that happen?
I usually eat only once a day maybe twice(by hunger), and the early hunter-gatherers may have had problems to do so every day, so what did the agricultural revolution etc. do to us so that we eat 3x a day?

Good question.  I’m also a fan of once a day.  I like to sip on coffee all morning (not to stay awake, I just enjoy the flavor) and water all afternoon.  If I get hungry sometimes I’ll have a piece of fruit in the afternoon.  I like to have a large dinner in the late evening.  On days I do eat lunch, say if I get invited to go out with a group of friends, I’m usually not hungry at all by the time I go to bed but I have to eat a piece of fruit in the morning and one in the afternoon to make it all the way to dinner the next night.

There must many factors responsible for when and how often we eat. In Czechoslovakia, for example, most blue-collar workers start their shifts at 6:00 a.m., and almost everybody is at work by 8:00 a.m. Their main meal takes place at noon.

In Spain people start to work around the same time as in North America, but they have their main meal around 2:00 p.m., followed by a short siesta. In Canada we eat around 6:00 p.m.

It would be probably difficult to figure what exactly is responsible for the differences in these three countries (of which I am familiar with), as the factors must be many. But climate must surely play a major role.

Alexander80 - 25 August 2012 09:58 AM

How did we end up eating three meals a day in the western world, large parts of asisa and africa?

Yes there are cultures which eat only twice, or more often, but the 3 meals policy seams to be far more in use then anything else.

How did that happen?
I usually eat only once a day maybe twice(by hunger), and the early hunter-gatherers may have had problems to do so every day, so what did the agricultural revolution etc. do to us so that we eat 3x a day?

AFAIK, the 3 meals a day plan came about in the last century and a half, when many people were working in factories.

I have never known anybody who actually eats that way though, not even close.