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CNET
19 hours ago
- Health
- CNET
Do You Really Need to Eat 3 Meals a Day? We Asked an Expert Dietician
Eating three balanced meals per day is often touted as the healthiest way to maintain a healthy diet and get adequate nutrition. But if you're like me and have an unpredictable eating pattern, getting three meals in each day can be tough. I love to snack throughout the day, I don't like putting effort into cooking and I even skip meals until I'm so hangry I can barely think straight. I know that I'm not alone in struggling to make the three meals a day lifestyle work for me. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the proportion of people consuming three meals a day declined significantly from the 1970s to 2010 (73% to 59% in men and 75% to 63% in women). I'd venture to guess those numbers have gone down even more in the 12 years since that survey, as stress and burnout has reached a fever pitch in recent years. This made me wonder how important is it to have frequent meals? Why aren't two meals (or the popular OMAD) safe? And why is it so hard to eat three meals a day? I talked to a nutrition expert and dove into the research to find out. Here's how my own eating habits have transformed for the meals a day: An origin story Though we now take it for granted, the division of your daily diet into three meals -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- hasn't always been the standard, and it still isn't in some places in the world. Before industrialization, as New York University food historian Amy Bentley told The Atlantic, people in the US tended to eat just two large meals, fueling their bodies for rural, outdoor labor. In ancient Rome, the custom was to eat one large meal, plus two small, light meals. In the US, our eating habits are now typically organized around our workdays or school days. But cultural norms aside, there's no scientific reason for you to eat exactly three meals every day. "The number of meals in a day itself isn't key," said Marissa Kai Miluk, a registered dietitian nutritionist who specializes in stopping binge eating. "Every person is different and there is research on all ends of the spectrum of how many times a day you 'should' be eating." Over the years, there have been studies that show benefits to eating more frequent meals, as well as studies that show the downsides of it. Some research has also found benefits to eating less frequent, bigger meals and -- you guessed it -- the downsides of it. With that said, the three-meals-a-day recommendation didn't come out of nowhere. In one sense, it all comes down to math: The average adult human requires 2,000 calories per day, and you're only awake for so many hours. "Across all peer-reviewed research and health practices, three meals a day is a general recommendation to encourage consistent, adequate energy intake," Miluk said. "Unless someone is seriously lacking in time or safe access to food, I would not recommend eating less than three meals a day, as that would require a large intake in one sitting in order to meet basic needs," she added. Best Coolers for Barbecues, Camping and More Best Coolers for Barbecues, Camping and More Click to unmute Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Skip Backward Skip Forward Next playlist item Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 13:15 Loaded : 1.52% 00:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 13:15 Share Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Best Coolers for Barbecues, Camping and More Still, the math can change depending on your own health needs and schedule, not to mention a ton of other, less quantifiable factors -- like, in my case, a love for snacks. More important than the number of meals, Miluk said, is consistency. Skipping meals, waiting all day to eat and other inconsistent eating patterns can have a range of unintended outcomes, from increased blood pressure to high or low blood sugar. So how do you know if your eating patterns are healthy? "Experiencing frequent mood swings, hanger, erratic cravings, insatiable hunger, eating with a sense of urgency and binges are common signs that you may need to reevaluate your eating patterns and relationship with food," Miluk explained. But eating regular meals is, somehow, so much harder than it seems, at least for people like eating three meals a day is so hard Sometimes the choice to veer away from the three-meals-a-day schedule is just that -- a choice. But even if you'd love to eat a proper breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, it can be challenging. You can't always control when you get a moment to sit down and eat, or what food options are available. Mental health and stress can also affect appetite. Let's call a spade a spade: Eating is work. Preparing a meal takes physical and mental labor, in addition to time and money. Even the process of figuring out what to eat can feel like an insurmountable obstacle when you have a million other things on your mind. And that's before you account for diet culture, which makes meal times even more fraught and stressful by equating thinness to health, and health to a moral virtue. (If your goal is simply weight loss, meal timing and frequency involves a whole other type of math.) There's a lot of pressure to eat the "right" number and type of meals and cook them all ourselves, using fresh, whole ingredients. On a budget. While working and taking care of loved ones. Easier said than done. Sometimes it's more convenient to… not do all that, and just reach for a snack instead. While the number of people eating three meals a day has gone down over the past several decades, people are eating more calories overall; we're just getting more of those calories from snacks now. In some countries, it's relatively easy to access nutritious food -- and this is key -- that you don't have to cook yourself. Local foodways in Mexico and Ghana, for example, make it easy to walk down the road and get a cheap, fully prepared (and delicious) meal made with local protein and produce, or a bundle of fresh local fruit. Not so in many places in the the idea that you should cook all your meals yourself at home is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the past, only families that had space for a home kitchen and the means to hire help ate home-cooked meals every day. In cities, working-class people ate cooked food from small eateries and street vendors. Communal eating is also a treasured tradition in many cultures, both in the US and across the globe. Three meals a day isn't some magic number; it's just a benchmark to help ensure you're eating enough consistently -- and modern life in this country makes it extremely difficult. So what can you do about it? 3 tips for eating 3 meals First things first: Accept that struggling to cook three meals at home every day is not a personal failing. But you don't necessarily have to wait for sweeping society-wide changes to relieve some of the frustration. Here are some tips that helped me, and might help you, too. 1. Go back to basics As you know by now, three meals a day is not a golden rule. But if you're struggling to eat regular meals at all, Miluk told me she usually advises her clients to prioritize eating three meals a day first and foremost. "When your body doesn't trust that food will be consistently available, it goes into fight-or-flight mode," she explained. A daily meal schedule provides a "solid foundation" that allows you to rebuild trust in your body and reregulate your appetite. That's not to say it'll be smooth sailing. I'm used to skipping lunch by accident or postponing dinner for way too long, and that didn't just go away. But having a clear goal in mind was incredibly helpful. Every time I was able to successfully eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, I learned what it felt like to enjoy life with consistent energy instead of brain fog and hangriness. d3sign/Getty Images 2. Practice nonjudgment Over the years, I've tried a lot of different ways to outsmart myself and get my three meals in. But I can't truly say that I was able to succeed until I finally gave up on trying to always eat the "right" foods, the "right" way. Instead, I focused on what was realistic and convenient for me: How could I get the nutrients that I need, while taking all the barriers in my life into account? By removing any judgment about what your three meals consist of, you may be more likely to actually eat them. For me, that meant adding a meal subscription and meal shakes to my daily routine. For others, it might mean grocery delivery, help with meal prep from your community, canned or prepared foods, food trucks or cheap easy produce (like bananas). Focusing not only on health, but on ease -- even when it meant eating stuff that I felt like I "shouldn't" eat -- changed everything for me. With each day, I remind myself that I'm worth all the money and the effort that it takes to feed myself. I forgive myself for living in a culture and era that doesn't make nourishing my body easy, and I commit to caring for myself in whatever ways I have to despite that. 3. Check in with yourself After you've gotten comfortable with eating three meals a day, according to Miluk, you can focus on tuning into your own body's signals and using the hunger-fullness scale to maintain an eating schedule that works best for you. That means taking into account your food preferences, health needs and values, schedule and accessibility. A professional dietitian can help guide you along this journey, but remember that there is no one-size-fits-all prescription for when or what to eat. "The key to knowing the optimal meal timing for yourself is tuning out the world around you and getting honest with yourself," said Miluk. Westend61/Getty Images Her recommendation for figuring that out is to ask yourself the following questions: How do I feel when I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner consistently versus when I skip a meal? Do my meals and/or snacks sustain me until my next meal or snack? When I go long periods of time without a substantial meal or snack, do I notice any changes in my focus, energy or mood? Do I pay attention to signs from my body for when I am hungry and when I am full? Are there any patterns to my appetite that stand out? Does my appetite stay stable throughout the day or do I find I eat more at certain times of the day? For me, it turns out that eating three meals a day is actually the most feasible way to reach my daily needs while working a 9-to-5 job. Given how often I get hungry and how much I like to eat in one sitting, that's just what makes sense. You might decide that living your best life means eating two ginormous meals as farmers used to, or snacking from morning to night. "Some may consider themselves 'grazers' and there's nothing wrong with that," Miluk assured me. "This is why trusting and tuning into one's own body is more important than any diet rule or handbook on health," she said. "A scientific study could say that eating 12 times a day is the best for longevity, but who does that realistically apply to?"
Malay Mail
6 days ago
- Health
- Malay Mail
Sarawak tops vape use among youth, state minister calls for urgent action on rising trend
KUCHING, June 23 — Sarawak has the highest vape users among youngsters aged 13 to 17 years in Malaysia, based on the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) undertaken in 2022, which recorded prevalence rate of 20.3 per cent, or 39,608 individuals. To Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Sarawak Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, this is not something to be proud of. 'This is not good. We're on top of the list, but not for a good reason. 'The prevalence rate of vape use among Sarawakianz aged 15 years and above has also shown an increase. The NHMS report showed an increase in the prevalence rate of vape use from 4.5 per cent in 2019 to 7.3 per cent in 2023,' she said at the state-level 'National Anti-Drugs Day 2025' at Detar Putra of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) on Saturday evening. In this regard, she said her ministry was ready to bring this issue up at the Sarawak Cabinet meeting in seeking direction on the next step of action. She also pointed out that there had been cases of illegal substance being added to vapes, with police statistics in 2023 reporting nine cases of illegal vape substances in Sarawak. 'We must do something to avoid this issue from becoming out of hand,' she stressed. On another matter, Fatimah said Sarawak recorded a total of 4,602 arrests involving various drug-related offences from January to April this year. 'What is worrying is the increase in relapse cases among drug addicts in Sarawak, where the number of recorded cases jumped by 120 per cent from 319 cases (last year) to 703 cases.' She added out of the 4,602 arrests, 2,804 involved youths – up from 1,392 youths' arrests recorded last year. 'This group (youths) are of the future of the state and the country. 'What's clear now is that prevention efforts must start earlier, at the school level with strong support from the teachers and parents,' she pointed out. The state minister also called upon youths to never experiment with illegal drugs, as getting over the addiction and rehabilitation process would be difficult for them. — The Borneo Post
Gulf Insider
17-06-2025
- Health
- Gulf Insider
UK Turning Into 'National Health State', Says Think Tank
The UK is turning into a 'National Health State,' the Resolution Foundation has said, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £29 billion annual increase in NHS funding. The think tank's analysis of Reeves's Spending Review estimates that by the end of financial year 2028–29, the health service will account for half (49 percent) of all day-to-day public services spending, up from 34 percent in 2009–10. On Wednesday, the chancellor announced a record £29 billion funding injection, which the Treasury said will deliver on the government's promise to cut waiting lists, improve patient care, and modernise services. Resolution Foundation Chief Executive Ruth Curtice said in a statement, 'Health accounted for 90 per cent of the extra public service spending, continuing a trend that is seeing the British state morph into a National Health State, with half of public service spending set to be on health by the end of the decade.' The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) noted in its initial response to the Spending Review that the funding increase for the NHS was substantial, but questioned whether it will be enough to get the health service back to meeting its 18-week target for hospital waiting times within this Parliament, something which the think tank said was 'enormously ambitious.' Click here to read more…
Medscape
16-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
2 New Studies Show CVD Benefit of Portfolio Diet
Two new Canadian studies suggest that the plant-based Portfolio Diet, which features cholesterol-lowering food choices, can reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality across diverse groups. The diet previously had been evaluated mostly among older, White participants. The first study found an association between the diet, which was developed in 2003 by David J.A. Jenkins, MD, PhD, DSc, a researcher at the University of Toronto, Toronto, and a lower risk for CVD mortality and all-cause mortality. It was published last month in BMC Medicine . Researchers analyzed data of 14,835 US adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) and found that adhering to the Portfolio Diet was associated with a significant reduction in the risk for death from CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and all causes. Points for Foods Participants' diets were evaluated by 24-hour dietary recall and a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at baseline using the Portfolio Diet Score (PDS). Patients were assigned positive points for the four focus groups of the diet: Nuts, plant protein (eg, beans or tofu), viscous fiber (eg, apples, oatmeal, and eggplant), and phytosterols and plant monounsaturated fatty acid sources (eg, enriched margarine or oils). Patients received negative points for foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The primary outcome was CVD mortality. For all participants, an 8-point increase in PDS was associated with a 12% lower risk for CVD mortality. Other mortality outcomes included CHD, stroke, and all-cause mortality. Examining 22 years of follow-up, the researchers found that higher adherence to the diet was associated with lower risk factors, including blood lipids, glycemia, and inflammation. An increase in PDS of 8 points was associated with a 12% lower risk, 14% lower risk, and 12% lower risk for CVD, CHD, and all-cause mortality, respectively, after adjustments for known CVD risk factors. 'We know that it works,' study author Meaghan E. Kavanagh, PhD, of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine, told Medscape Medical News . It has been clear since early clinical trials that the diet can lower the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol substantially, she said. 'It's the same effect as a first-generation statin.' The current research is the next step, she explained, and the studies demonstrate that the diet can reduce people's risk for dying from these factors. They also broaden the diversity of the cohort. Younger, Diverse Group The focus of the related trial, which was published last month in BMC Public Health and written by many of the same researchers, 'was to look at [the diet] in a younger population to see if we could find associations with LDL cholesterol in such a healthy, young population. We're trying to show it works in all groups,' Kavanaugh said. The trial, led by Victoria Chen, a student at the University of Toronto, included 1507 ethnoculturally diverse people in their 20s using data from the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Study. In that study, diet was assessed by a validated Toronto-modified Harvard 196-item FFQ. Participants were instructed on how to complete the FFQ using visual aids of portion sizes. Adherence to the Portfolio Diet was measured using the PDS, and data analysis was adjusted for potential confounders. Researchers studied the association of the PDS with LDL and other established CV risk factors in young people. In this group, 'an 8-point higher PDS was associated with 3% lower LDL-C, the primary outcome,' the authors wrote. 'Our findings are also in agreement with cross-sectional analyses of other dietary patterns that share some similar components (legumes, whole grains, nuts, plant oils, fruits, and vegetables) to the Portfolio Diet, including the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and Mediterranean diets, which have been associated with more favorable lipid, blood pressure, and/or adiposity markers in young adults who are predominantly university students.' According to the study, 50% adherence to the Portfolio Diet beginning in young adulthood may delay increases in CVD risk later in life by about 6 years. Strict adherence could delay it by up to 13 years. 'This diet reinforces that patterns of eating are important over and above any one nutrient or food group,' said Jodi Heshka, MD, director of the Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy Clinic at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa. 'These new data show the Portfolio Diet also works in a variety of patients, ages, different backgrounds.' Heshka did not participate in the study. Low Adherence Beneficial Heshka, who recommends the diet to her patients, said another benefit is that even low adherence improves outcomes. 'You don't have to go crazy following the Portfolio Diet to a tee,' she pointed out. 'Simply by incorporating more of these foods and by default reducing other foods — even that alone can add benefit.' Michele Blanchet, RD, a registered dietitian with Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, told Medscape Medical News that she's been recommending the Portfolio Diet to patients since she started specializing in CV health 14 years ago. 'It's been the crux of me helping individuals lower cholesterol,' she said, but she also combines it with parts of the Mediterranean diet, particularly the visual representations of proportions of food groups. She said she was particularly glad to see the finding that the diet can reduce the risk even in young, healthy people. 'We're seeing in our cardiac rehab program younger and younger individuals coming in needing bypass surgeries, having heart attacks,' Blanchet said. To work with young adults to follow the diet, she takes a diet history and looks at where they can make small changes: Adding vegetables and legumes and sprinkling flaxseed on foods, for instance. 'By making small changes throughout the day, they can have this synergistic effect of lowering their cholesterol and seeing the heart health benefits of this diet,' she said. The study led by Kavanaugh was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The study led by Chen was funded by a Toronto 3D Research Fellowship Award, CIHR, and a University of Toronto fellowship. Kavanaugh, Chen, Heshka, and Blanchet reported having no relevant financial relationships.
Glasgow Times
12-06-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Council tax bills set to rise at fastest rate for two decades, economist warns
Paul Johnson said that local government in England did 'perhaps a little bit better than it might have expected' out of the Chancellor's statement on Wednesday, but the 'sting in the tail' is the assumption that 'council tax bills will rise by 5% a year' as part of the funding. The core spending power of councils is set to increase by 2.6% a year from next year, and 'if English councils do choose 5% increases – and most almost certainly will – council tax bills look set to rise at their fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05', Mr Johnson said on Thursday. On Wednesday, Ms Reeves said that ministers will not be 'going above' the 5% annual increases in council tax. (PA Graphics) She told ITV: 'The previous government increased council tax by 5% a year, and we have stuck to that. We won't be going above that. 'That is the council tax policy that we inherited from the previous government, and that we will be continuing.' The biggest winner from Wednesday's statement was the NHS, which will see its budget rise by £29 billion per year in real terms. Ruth Curtice, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, has said that Britain is turning into a 'National Health State'. Overnight, the think tank said Ms Reeves' announcements had followed a recent trend that saw increases for the NHS come at the expense of other public services. Ms Curtice said: 'Health accounted for 90% of the extra public service spending, continuing a trend that is seeing the British state morph into a National Health State, with half of public service spending set to be on health by the end of the decade.' Defence was another of Wednesday's winners, Ms Curtice said, receiving a significant increase in capital spending while other departments saw an overall £3.6 billion real-terms cut in investment. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) made similar arguments about 'substantial' investment in the NHS and defence coming at the expense of other departments, although Mr Johnson warned on Wednesday the money may not be enough. In his snap reaction to the review, Mr Johnson said: 'Aiming to get back to meeting the NHS 18-week target for hospital waiting times within this Parliament is enormously ambitious – an NHS funding settlement below the long-run average might not measure up. 'And on defence, it's entirely possible that an increase in the Nato spending target will mean that maintaining defence spending at 2.6% of GDP no longer cuts the mustard.' Ms Curtice added that low and middle-income families had also done well out of the spending review 'after two rounds of painful tax rises and welfare cuts', with the poorest fifth of families benefiting from an average of £1,700 in extra spending on schools, hospitals and the police. She warned that, without economic growth, another round of tax rises was likely to come in the autumn as the Chancellor seeks to balance the books. She said: 'The extra money in this spending review has already been accounted for in the last forecast. 'But a weaker economic outlook and the unfunded changes to winter fuel payments mean the Chancellor will likely need to look again at tax rises in the autumn.' Speaking after delivering her spending review, Ms Reeves insisted she would not have to raise taxes to cover her spending review. She told GB News: 'Every penny of this is funded through the tax increases and the changes to the fiscal rules that we set out last autumn.' Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described rising health spending as a 'conundrum', with a similar approach having been taken 'again and again' as she spoke at a business conference in central London on Thursday morning. In reference to a pro-Brexit campaign stunt, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I mean, who remembers the side of a red bus that said 'we're going to give the NHS £350 million more a week'? 'Many people don't know that we did that. We did do that, and yet, still we're not seeing the returns. 'We've put more and more money in, and we're getting less and less out.' The Government have not explained how and why the NHS will be better as a result of its spending plans, the Tory leader added, and claimed the public know 'we need to start talking about productivity reforms, public sector reforms'.
