Having three meals a day can feel like a difficult task when you have to balance the various pressures of modern life. Despite this, eating three meals a day is vitally important and isn’t something that should be neglected. If you’re lucky enough to be able to afford three meals a day, you shouldn’t take this for granted. Millions of people go hungry globally, relying on ummah appeals and other charitable means of obtaining food.
Not consuming the right amount of food is detrimental to a person’s health and no one deserves to undergo this hardship. We all know that eating three meals a day is important, but why is that?
Weight
It is widely believed that spreading calories across three meals throughout the day is beneficial to your weight. This is not wholly accurate, as eating three meals a day does directly affect your body’s composition. Instead, it allows you to manage your food intake.
Therefore, your body will become accustomed to these regular eating habits which will cause you to feel hungry at the same time each day. If you struggle with not eating enough, these regular feelings of hunger will remind you to eat. If you find that you eat too much, this consistency will help you kick cravings.
Calorie Distribution
One benefit of eating three times a day is that your calories get spread out throughout the day. This means that you won’t get hungry between meals, yet you won’t be spreading your calories too thin. If you find yourself grazing all day, you won’t be able to track your intake and you won’t ever truly feel satisfied. Three meals a day is the perfect food intake as you’re satisfied but not so full that you feel sluggish.
Meal Quality vs Meal Quantity
For a balanced diet, you need to consume foods from each food group. If you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you’ll typically consume a wide variety of food. This will guarantee that you’re eating everything that you need to maintain a balanced diet. Without ample meal planning, you may end up snacking on foods that severely lack nutritional value.
What Should Three Meals A Day Look Like
Breakfast is a great opportunity to get fruit, grains, and protein into your diet. Meals such as these will energise you ready for the day, whilst settling your stomach. Once you have burnt off your breakfast as the day progresses, you will most likely be craving an energy boost from some carbs. Therefore, for lunch, you can have something with bread or pasta as long as you don’t forget to incorporate some protein and vegetables. Similarly, you might get your calcium from a yoghurt for dessert.
For dinner, protein will need to be the main component of your meal; this too should be accompanied by some form of carbohydrate and vegetable. If you are still feeling peckish after dinner, you should snack on vegetables or crackers to upkeep your fibre intake.
Limited Snacks
Three meals a day should typically mean that you will not need snacks to feel full. However, this may not be the case for everyone, which will leave them reaching for sugary or salty snacks. These foods are not beneficial to your health and will not satisfy your hunger pangs. In fact, sugar and salt are the main culprits of cravings, and once you start you may struggle to stop.
Though it’s common to associate food intake with weight, this should not be your main worry. Your general health and wellbeing should be your primary concern and correct food intake will benefit you in this way.
