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

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

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Anonymous 0 Comments

You don’t need to eat 3 times a day. That’s a fabricated, synthetic hangover from the Victorian era where people thought the thing to do was have three meals to emulate the rich, basically.

3 meals a day has no basis in human biology.

Case in point: I eat one meal a day. Have done for 20+ years. So healthy doctors just de-register me after I’m on their books for years but don’t need their services. So fat that I can’t fit my watch on my wrist properly. So lacking in energy that I’m up all night and then go all through the next day doing a fulltime job and don’t eat for… what? 22+ hours of the day?

The human digestion doesn’t need a set number of meals a day. It doesn’t even need a meal a day. Paleantologically speaking, you would eat small snacks and nuts and seeds and fruit as you passed by them, and you’d eat meat as a rare meal which you might take days to find. Your digestion will adapt accordingly depending on what’s available, and if you’re not TOLD to eat three meals a day, in a gluttonous environment where that’s literally the norm now, then you don’t need to and don’t feel hungry for having missed out on it. The gut can literally adapt to long periods of fast followed by short, unexpected, intense meals really easily.

Even my diet is gluttonous compared to historical humans.

And though you *can* go weeks without food, you wouldn’t want to, even in pre-history. It’s not comfortable, but you just won’t die. Same way that you *can* keeping walking for miles and miles for days on end. You just wouldn’t want to unless you had a reason, and given the choice you’d probably rather not do that.

I have often been without food for 2, 3 days and not even noticed. Usually the longer periods are when I’m ill (very rare, I’ve had one day off work in the last 15 years) and don’t feel like eating, while I can easily go 2 days without food or sleep without myself or anyone else in work even noticing.

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