Eat at the right time
What is very important is the need to get enough energy and nutrients into the body on a daily basis. Too much food would lead to overweight and obesity with their attendant myriad of problems.
Advertisement
Taking too much of a particular nutrient at the detriment of the others can also be bad. One therefore has to grasp the concept of balanced diet and apply it to whatever food they take in a day.
Make sure you get all the food nutrients per meal, adequate energy, enough fibre so as to make your defaecation hours stress free.
Regular meals have benefits
Sticking to the same meal times daily helps normalise metabolism in everybody. For those who have diseases that are brought about by a defect in metabolism, regular meal times help in managing those diseases well.
School children would do well in their academics with if they are fed regularly. Children would fall sick less often if they eat regularly.
Must it be three meals?
Early in the morning, energy levels are low and therefore there is the need to eat to re-tool the body for its activities in the day. That is why it’s very prudent to have your breakfast early enough.
Recent studies suggest that the best time for breakfast is between 5am and 8am. This offers you a lot of advantages. People who skip breakfast tend to have more appetite later in the day, thus they end up eating too much food.
You get energy to start the day with if you eat breakfast. Without breakfast, you become like a vehicle that is being forced to move without fuel.
Other Trending Stories
Getting to about six hours after breakfast, energy levels become low. It is then time for lunch. Ideally, lunch should be taken between 12noon and 1pm every day.
If you want to reserve appetite for supper, then have a small lunch around the time I have suggested.
Late lunch might force you to have late supper as well. You might feel okay without a meal in the afternoon but your cells may not feel that fine. That is why it is very necessary to have your lunch.
Get over office schedules and meetings, take a break and have your lunch. Some may say it is not possible when they are strong and fine now.
The same people will cower into following the same advice if they fall sick. Remember that prevention is better than cure.
Supper is to be taken between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. Skipping supper is also bad. Having late supper is bad as well since it only leads to overweight, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
If you skip supper also, you would have very low glucose levels in the night and at dawn. This is like starving your own body cells.
Food eaten at supper should not be so much as well. Just a little amount of food enough to satisfy you is okay.
You can get help from a dietician who will calculate the amount of food that you can eat at every meal. Sticking to such plans will ensure that you have adequate nutrition.
When you get home late, you can have some light food; say light soup and two thin machine slices of bread.
You can take tea and bread, without margarine or any other spreads on the bread as well. Having salad without cream and bread is also not a bad idea.
What about snacks?
Snacks can be taken between meals, especially by children. Just make sure that whatever you have for snacks are not oily, as in fried foods. Watch out for the sugar and salt content of such snacks as well.
Advertisement
Soft drinks and meat pies will obviously be bad to snack on. Taking small servings of fresh fruits as snacks is advisable. You just have to take a little not much.
A final word
I hope you will take a second look at the times that you eat since it is also as important as the food you eat.
Irregular meals and undefined mealtimes have caused many to develop high blood cholesterol, stomach ulcers, worsened diabetes mellitus, just to mention a few.
Let’s learn from our mistakes and make tomorrow better than today. Stay blessed!!!
Advertisement
The writer is a dietician at Trust Hospital and author of "Diet, Health & Wellness Book". For copies of my book and diet advice from me, Contact: Tel- 0244090262, Email- letsconsult@gmail.com, Whatsapp: 0244090262.