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Diet That Does Not Require You to Eat Often

Aug 18, 2011 | By Ashley Jacob
Diet That Does Not Require You to Eat Often
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Most popular diet plans recommends spreading your food into five to small six meals, which may not be a convenient way of eating for busy people. Although many people believe that eating more often can help increase their metabolism, this belief is not supported by the science, as shown in a study published in the April 2010 issue of "The British Journal of Nutrition." The Paleo diet is a diet that does not require you to eat often; one to three meals a day is usually sufficient for most people. Because the Paleo diet naturally allows to stabilize your blood sugar levels and decrease hunger, snacks are usually not needed. Consult your doctor before changing the frequency and timing of your meals or adopting a new diet.

The Paleo Diet

The Paleo diet is built around foods and eating patterns that many human populations have thrived on over the course of our evolution. According to the Paleo diet, eating one to three meals a day and avoiding grazing between meals is best not only for weight loss but also for health and longevity. The Paleo diet also emphasizes the importance of the quality of the food you choose and suggest eating organic, local and seasonal vegetables, fruits and tubers, as well as grass-fed beef, free-range fowl and their eggs and wild-caught fish. The inclusion of fats from lard, coconut oil, avocado, occasional nuts and nut butter is also an important part of this way of eating. The Paleo diet excludes grains, and especially gluten-containing grains, legumes, including soy and peanuts, dairy products, sugar and processed foods. These exclusions make the Paleo diet, de facto, a carbohydrate-reduction diet. Restricting these blood-sugar-spiking foods is the key to its effectiveness in regulating blood sugar, and, consequently, the need to eat often.

Evolutionary Perspective

The principles of the Paleo diet lie in using the lifestyle of our ancestor hunter-gatherers to formulate hypotheses on what may be best for today's humans. Most hunter-gatherer tribes living before the invention of agriculture usually ate only one meal a day, typically an evening meal, with an occasional breakfast if there were any leftovers the following day, according to the informational website The Paleo Diet. Moreover, our ancestors had to fast if they were not successful at hunting or gathering food on some days. These patterns mostly hold true in hunter-gatherer tribal populations living today, as well.

The Science

Simply relying on what humans did during the Paleolithic period, to the best of our knowledge, is not sufficient to make it appropriate for the Paleo lifestyle. However, plenty of studies have looked into the benefits of eating less often, which can also be referred to as intermittent fasting. The Paleo diet encourages this practice if your are healthy and your blood sugar levels are under control, although it is completely optional. Intermittent fasting consists in compressing the window of time during which you eat each day. For example, you can fast for 16 hours a day and eat only during a period of 8 hours. Intermittent fasting is associated with lower inflammatory markers, which could decrease your risk of heart diseases and inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, as explained by Dr. Michael R. Eades, coauthor of the bestseller "Protein Power." Another study indicates that intermittent fasting can help your brain and your heart age better and prolong your lifespan, as published in the April 2010 issue of "The British Journal of Nutrition."

Special Considerations

Eating five to six times a day may work for some people, but eating less often can be a more convenient and healthier way to eat for others. Experiment with different approaches to determine what feels best for you. Consult your doctor if you intend to practice intermittent fasting. If you want to go on the Paleo diet, you should first improve the quality of your foods and get healthier before practicing intermittent fasting. When starting, eat as often as you want or need to, but as your blood sugars stabilize because of the lower intake of carbohydrates, you will naturally feel like you don't need to eat as often. If you take medications or have a medical condition, your doctor will advise you on the safest way to decrease the frequency of your meals and snacks.

References

Article reviewed by Vesna Vuynovich Kovach Last updated on: Aug 18, 2011

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