What does “everyone know” about proper nutrition? An excursion to folk nutrition: “Eat breakfast yourself …”

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The rule “do not eat after 6” is very relative. It all depends on the regime of the day, you need to adapt to it. But there is another controversial and also well-known rule: “Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, give dinner to the enemy.” 

Honestly, I do not know what this means and where it came from. Especially regarding dinner …

I warn you right away: I will not express a generally accepted point of view on the diet. So you can criticize. Just think first: maybe there is a rational kernel here? 

“It is well known” that dinner should be loosely and no less than 3 hours before bedtime. And breakfast is “as it should”, that is, tightly. And this is logically justified: breakfast is the most important meal, “charging” with energy for the whole day. And then, if you follow the saying, with each meal, the amount of food eaten decreases.   

Both sports nutritionists and athletes agree that breakfast should be tight. But with athletes – a separate issue. And you and I are ordinary people in general. So if we want to eat in the morning?   

Someone wants to, but many have breakfast more because “it is so customary.” Especially if you have to get up early. But are you so hungry at 6-7 a.m.? Yes, and at 8? 

No, if in the morning you run 5 kilometers at a fast pace or do a normal workout for an hour and a half, with full calculation – you’ll probably be hungry. A hearty breakfast is justified if your lifestyle involves heavy loads during the day. Something like … like ancestral farmers.     

That is: they ate tightly in the morning – and worked hard until a sweat. We have breakfast for the future, so that we have enough strength before lunch, before the heat and rest. Have a rest, have a snack? Do not bother too much, it will be hard to work hard! This morning, after a hearty breakfast, get to the field, so that breakfast settles down a bit / settles down. And you have lunch here in the field. We had lunch, took a nap for a bit – and work hard! Before sunset. They returned, had dinner and on the side! Rest, because tomorrow at dawn, work hard again.   

We get a 3-time healthy diet with a hearty breakfast, “shared with a friend” lunch and … and a normal dinner. Just before bedtime. No, maybe, of course, the ancestors dined “lightly” – but I don’t really imagine that a healthy man who has worked up to a drop would be limited to a light dinner. And that I had dinner “no later than 3 hours before bedtime” – I can’t imagine. It is more likely that he, having had a tight supper than God sent (that is, proteins / vegetables that are not recommended now), soon fell asleep.    

Why all this? All the same: the recommended usually hearty breakfast, high carbohydrate, 30-40% of the daily calorie intake, is appropriate before hard physical work, if it is impossible to eat later. Having a hearty breakfast, we, in fact, eat ourselves up for the future. Do most citizens need this?  

A solid portion of carbohydrates is converted to glucose – a source of energy … And if we are not hungry yet? If the body does not require food , it means that it has enough energy. This is logical: in a dream, energy is spent only on the maintenance of life – the main exchange. And before bedtime, not everyone conducts strength training. That is, many have no need for breakfast.   

No, there may and may be wanted. Out of habit. If for years and even months to have breakfast at 7 in the morning – the body gets used to it. And by this time it’s getting ready – it allocates a dose of insulin for processing the expected carbohydrates. If you don’t have breakfast now , the blood glucose level will decrease and hunger will increase.   

But we had breakfast, adding more energy to the unspent overnight. We are going to work. Excess energy is deposited “in reserve”.

Therefore, another popular rule, or rather, the error , looks funny : “ You can eat everything till 12 ” or “ Sweet – in the morning. ” As if the point is that everything will be burned in a day. Burnt. If during the day, instead of eating, you should properly work out your muscles …   

And the solution is obvious: do not have breakfast. Most citizens have enough energy to not starve to death.

When is there? For dinner. 

There is a point of view opposite to the popular “eat breakfast yourself …”. Something like this: “Skip breakfast, eat lunch and dinner.”

There is logic in this. We skip breakfast, so get hungry just in time for dinner. Maybe we’ll burn some of the fat from the fat depots.

After a too heavy dinner , it’s both heavy and sleepy. But most of us prefer dinner tightly. And falling asleep hungry uncomfortable. So maybe a good dinner is normal and natural?  

What do nutritionists and folk wisdom agree on is that dinner is not worth the sweet. Moreover – for dinner you need to eat as little carbohydrates as possible. How to have dinner? Mostly protein foods, vegetables, fruits. They will replenish the expended energy – a small part of the protein is converted into glucose. Proteins are absorbed slowly, so you wake up not hungry. And vegetables / fruits contain, although not much, carbohydrates.   

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