What purpose does rationing food serve when eating it normally would provide the same amount of nutrients anyway? Doesn’t rationing make it more likely for food to spoil?
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There is a limit to calorie intake. I can’t remember how much it is. Let’s just say it would be 500 kcal per hour. If in a food shortage situation that would leave you with supplies to get you through three days you simply would need to eat it through a tree me span of about 12 hours and should have similar effect as if you’d ration it over the days. Hunger would probably be an issue and you would feel down and tired since after some time you could only rely on fat to delivery energy to your muscles and brain.
The other 2 responses so far don’t answer your question.
Basically, if you eat less food, your body does 2 things; (1) increase nutrient extraction efficiency, and (2) lower the metabolic rate.
(1) the idea is that if you eat 1000 calories worth of food in 1 day, your body will likely extract over 990 calories worth of energy out of it. If you eat 10,000 calories worth of food in a day, your body might only extract 6000 calories of energy, which is wasteful if food is scarce.
(2) if your body is starving, it will shut down non-essential processes and conserve energy wherever it can, thereby lowering your calorie requirement. This is why cheat meals are very important in dieting
I think I understand your question – because the body is limited in its ability to absorb and utilise the components of food. In terms of things like glucose, it may be stores as glycogen in the muscles or liver and utilised later, however it would be of greater discomfort to you & less efficient than taking smaller quantities of food at regular intervals.
Food is rationed generally because it’s a limited supply with an unknown (if any) chance of getting more, or you need to make it last until a certain point.
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