If humans can go weeks without eating, why do we eat 3 times a day?

Question

If humans can go weeks without eating, why do we eat 3 times a day?

In: 4549

Answer 1

Meal times have an interesting history. I’ll give ya a boring version!

Romans would eat one meal a day, basically around noon. OMAD, basically.

Then people starting doing two meals for whatever reasons. Probably still, technically, intermittent fasting.

Then three meals came around several hundred years ago, and metabolic disorders have been increasing ever since!

People are meant to go without food occasionally. This trips a critical metabolic switch: burning fat, producing ketones, activating autophagy, and more! Called fasting metabolism for obvious reasons. Fasting has numerous clinical benefits.