Why you need to eat 2 times a day. Experimental studies: there is no difference in the number of meals for ordinary people. Portion to calorie ratio throughout the day

Food serves as a source of energy necessary for the smooth functioning of human body. That is why nutritionists recommend paying attention to what you eat. It is important that breakfast is complete and balanced. After reading this article, you will learn about the main aspects of proper nutrition.

Basic principles

Those who want to understand how many times a day they need to eat should remember that when compiling an individual menu, it is advisable to take into account physiological features of your body. It is important that food fully meets your needs for carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and trace elements. For example, those whose activities are associated with hard physical labor are recommended to use more meat, and those who work in the office are shown products with high content glucose.

One of the key roles in this case plays the method of preparation of certain products. So, much more harmful boiled or baked. You should also pay attention to the temperature of the food you eat. Experts advise to exclude from daily menu too cold and too hot dishes. Otherwise, the breakfast, lunch, dinner or afternoon snack you eat can cause heartburn or stomach pain. Ideally, the temperature of the food served to the table should be about 38 degrees.

Among other things, it is important to consider portion size. According to most leading nutritionists, you need to eat little but often. You should not stretch your own stomach, sending the first, second and third into it at the same time. Thinking through the menu, we must not forget about the recommended

What should be the best breakfast?

Those who are trying to figure out how many times a day they need to eat should remember that the most high-calorie meals should be consumed in the morning. At this meal, you need to eat about 30% of the total average daily recommended intake of kilocalories. For completely healthy person this figure is about 3000 kcal per day.

The first breakfast, which falls at 7-8 o'clock in the morning, will have time to fully assimilate and be converted into energy. If you neglect your morning meal in favor of a cup of coffee and a sandwich, then literally in half an hour you will feel hungry again.

You can have breakfast. Cereals, cheeses and bakery products. But it is advisable to refuse semi-finished products, sausages and sausages, since they contain a large number of flavors, stabilizers and dyes that adversely affect our health.

What foods are good for lunch?

Usually, by 11 o'clock in the afternoon, a healthy person has a feeling of hunger again. This means that it is time to eat a second breakfast, consisting of low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese. These products are considered excellent sources of potassium, magnesium and other trace elements necessary for the normal functioning of our body.

To obtain maximum benefit, should be preferred natural products. You can also eat fruits for breakfast. At the same time, it is important that they are local, and not brought from another country. Most imported products contain practically no useful substances, and their taste is very different from domestic counterparts.

What can you eat during your lunch break?

Around 13-14 o'clock in the afternoon, you must definitely eat some kind of liquid dish. It can be fish soup, borscht, chicken or vegetable soup chik. Such food will not only satisfy your hunger, but will also prevent you from overeating.

If necessary, the soup can be replaced with a small portion of baked or boiled meat. Foods containing enough starch. It can be potatoes, legumes, rice or pasta.

For those who want to know how many times a day to eat, it is important to remember that after hot meals, you should not drink any cold drinks. Such temperature fluctuations often cause a slowdown in digestive processes.

What foods can you eat for lunch?

Around 4 pm healthy body needs to be refilled energy reserves. At this time, it is important not to overeat, so as not to shift dinner time and avoid discomfort heaviness in the stomach. For an afternoon snack, you should choose light and quickly digested dishes, such as mousse, chocolate, fruit and vegetable salads. Nutritionists do not recommend eating muffins, pizza, buns, cookies and other pastries at this time.

What to choose for dinner?

Those who have already understood how many times a day they need to eat should remember that light meals should be consumed during the evening meal. Ideally, dinner is recommended no later than four hours before going to bed.

During this meal, you can eat raw or stewed vegetables. But meat and chips or legumes are not considered the best option supper. It is also allowed to eat in the evening lean fish or boiled white meat. A glass is allowed before bed warm milk or kefir.

Nutrition by age

All nutritionists are of the same opinion, according to which, in different periods Human beings need different amounts of food in their lifetime. So, a newborn baby eats exclusively breast milk. At the same time, he asks for food every three to four hours, therefore, the baby eats six to eight times a day.

As the child grows, the interval between feedings also increases. In addition, the baby's diet becomes more diverse, new, previously unfamiliar products appear in it. A one-year-old toddler usually eats four to five times a day.

AT adolescence when it happens active growth body, nutritionists advise transferring the child to 3 meals a day. During this period, your heir needs full breakfast, lunch and dinner. Between these meals, you can have light but nutritious snacks.

Most adults eat the same way as teenagers, three times a day. But they are not as active, so they need fewer kilocalories. If a thirteen-year-old boy should consume about 3200 kcal per day, then in an adult this figure drops to 3000.

Meals in summer

It's no secret that in the hot season you need to adjust your diet. From the daily menu, it is desirable to exclude salted, smoked, fried and fatty meals. Best suited for summer: cottage cheese, milk porridge, stew, vegetable salads, okroshka and chicken meat. As a dessert, you can use fruit ice, various mousses and ice cream. For breakfast, it is advisable to eat porridge rich in all useful substances and slow carbohydrates. It can be sweet (with honey or fruit) or salty (with cheese or nuts). It is also recommended to supplement the morning meal with fermented milk products.

For lunch, you can eat vegetable soup with sorrel, parsley or spinach. Do not forget about meat and fish. However, in the summer you need to be very careful about the choice of these products and be sure to expose them to heat treatment. Fish and meat should preferably be boiled, stewed, steamed or baked in the oven.

In the evening, you can eat some light low-fat meal. For dinner, it is not recommended to eat fruits and berries, as they can cause fermentation and discomfort in the abdomen.

To quench thirst in summer heat it is recommended to drink fruit drinks, juices and compotes. Lack of fluid can cause blood clotting, headache, weakness and deterioration general well-being. Therefore, on hot days it is important to observe the drinking regimen.

In the summer months, you should not abuse lemonades, carbonated drinks and packaged juices, since they contain a large amount of sugar and other substances that have a diuretic effect. Chilled is considered a good way to quench your thirst. green tea, as well as a decoction of wild rose or mint.

Food for a person is a source of energy necessary for life. In addition, food brings joy and pleasure. Healthy nutrition is especially important for correct exchange substances in the body and timely saturation of it with vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Nowadays, more and more people are looking for healthy lifestyle life, which includes proper nutrition. All sorts of diets are becoming popular. Vegetarianism, separate meals, raw food - all this is also designed to improve our eating habits.

If you decide to take care of your health, eat correctly, you should also know how many times a day to eat.

How many times a day should children eat

The question of the number of meals per day is not so simple. AT different ages and under different circumstances, a person needs a different number of meals per day.

Thus, when a child is born, his diet is very poor. The baby needs only mother's breast milk or, if he is on artificial feeding, milk formula in the first six months of life. But the child eats milk every three to four hours, which means six to eight times a day.

As the child grows older, the time between meals increases, the diet becomes more varied. And by the age of one, the child eats 4-5 times a day. Moreover, the rate of required calories per day increases from 800 to 1330 in 1.5 years and further to 2380 to 10 years.

How many times a day should teenagers eat?

Teenagers are more active than children. In addition, body weight in adolescents also increases, because the growth of the body is still ongoing.

In adolescence, nutritionists recommend three meals a day - breakfast, lunch, dinner. A snack is also possible, the so-called afternoon snack. So, the best time for breakfast is in the morning, before school, at 7-8 o'clock. Lunch is better at 1-2, dinner - at 5-6, but no later than 7 pm. Provided that the teenager go to bed no later than 10 pm.

The daily intake of calories for a teenager increases from 2900 at 13 to 3200 for boys and decreases slightly to 2800 for girls by the age of 17.

How many times a day should adults eat

Adults usually eat three times a day - breakfast, lunch, dinner. In this, the number of meals and time is no different from the number of meals and time for a teenager.

There are some features that distinguish adults from teenagers. Adults are not as active as children or teenagers. In addition, the adult body no longer needs strength to grow. Therefore, the rate of consumption of calories per day for an adult is about 3000 calories.

How many times a day to eat. Special cases

There are cases when the usual norms of eating food are not suitable:

• Pregnant women and lactating mothers. Nutritionists recommend increasing the number of meals per day for pregnant women. In this case, the amount of food at one meal should be reduced. In other words, you need to eat little and often. The norm of consumption of calories is 3200 per day. For nursing mothers - 3500 per day.
• Various diseases. In this case, the diet is set by your doctor or nutritionist especially for you.
• Athletes. People who play sports professionally need 3500-5000 calories per day. The diet is also set individually by nutritionists.

Everyone knows the saying: "Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to the enemy." It gives precise instructions on how and how many times to eat. One of the first to give recommendations on the frequency of meals was Avicenna. His "Canon of Medicine" recommends three meals a day. Meals are distributed as follows - breakfast, dinner and lunch next day. It turns out that there should be no more than two meals a day?

DOUBLE nutrition system is based on the physiological capabilities of our body. It is necessary to refrain from subsequent food until the stomach is empty. Food must have time to pass into the duodenum. Only after that you can proceed to the next meal, and even better, give the stomach a little rest. Usually food is in it for 6-8 hours. So it turns out that from the moment of the first meal to the next, 8-10 hours should pass.

After the second meal, try not to eat at all. This will unload the stomach. In 14-16 hours, food will not only leave the stomach, but will also be completely removed from the small intestine, which will have additional time to recover.

Thus, the stomach will rest for half a day. The small intestine will be in working condition for 10-14 hours. The rest of the time is devoted to recovery period when there is an accumulation of enzymes, regeneration of the mucosa and restoration of normal contractile rhythms of the digestive system.

The need for such a regimen for the stomach is dictated by the fact that in the process of digestion, especially of protein foods, acidic contents affect its walls. The cells that produce hydrochloric acid, slime and gastric enzymes. The aggressiveness of the environment is such that the basis of the living is destroyed - proteins and others. organic compounds. The process of digestion in the stomach is traumatic for the gastric wall, so it needs more rest and recovery than other parts of the digestive tract.

The acid content enters the duodenum. It is neutralized by pancreatic juice and becomes alkaline. The activity of this substrate is very high. Therefore, rest and recovery in this zone should be at least half of the daily time.

We feed on the sun

OUR body adapts to a certain system of nutrition. Therefore, any changes in it at first cause rejection, which means a certain discomfort. You need to be ready for it. Try to listen subtly to the demands of the body during this process. My personal experience shows that full adaptation to new system nutrition takes place in for three months. During this period, changes occur in the body, new ones are produced and old ones are inhibited. conditioned reflexes. But there comes a time when the body realizes that new mode in any case will be introduced, and after this moment there is complete agreement between the given program and its execution.

What is the best time to eat? The experience of mankind and scientific data find an unambiguous answer to this question. best time for the assimilation of food is the first half of the day from dawn until the moment when the Sun is at its zenith. The further south the point where you live, the earlier it is recommended to eat before the heat appears.

And along the meridians

AT CHINESE MEDICINE the day is divided into twelve parts, corresponding to the time of activity of the meridians. The meridian of the lungs is active at 5-7 o'clock, the large intestine - at 7-9, the stomach - at 9-11, the spleen - at 11-13, the heart - at 13-15, the small intestine - at 15-17, Bladder- at 17-19, kidneys - at 19-21, pericardium - at 21-23, etc.

Most interesting is the time of activity of the stomach and small intestine. The stomach is active at 7-9 o'clock, and the small intestine - at 13-15 o'clock, that is, after 6 hours. Meridian activity was understood as a change in functionality. Six hours is the average time it takes for food to pass from the stomach to the beginning of the small intestine, the duodenum. This is the time between the first and second meals.

Taking into account modern data of physiology, biorhythms gastrointestinal tract and biochemical parameters of blood, food should be taken between 7 and 10 in the morning. The second meal is carried out no earlier than after 6 hours - from 13 to 15. This ideal scheme nutrition, but its interpretations are possible. However, they must also be consistent with long breaks between meals.

The circadian rhythms of most of the studied biochemical parameters have a pronounced single-phase activity. The maximum levels of glucose, total protein, cholesterol, urea, sodium and potassium ions are observed in the evening hours - from 18 to 24 hours. The minimum of these indicators has a semi-diurnal opposition early morning from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. That is, after sleep, a person has not only a decrease in the products necessary to maintain life, but also a decrease in the blood of circulating toxins. The body prepares for activity and necessary receipt food. In the evening, the maximum work of the cleansing organs begins, using the energy received for these processes. It is extremely unprofitable for the body to use the intestines in the evening, because this leads to a loss of energy. Strengthening its work during this period lowers the function of the excretory organs. So the choice of two meals a day is up to you.

How much you need to eat at one meal, so as not to overload the stomach and not violate the principles healthy eating or lose weight. How to measure your serving size proper nutrition visually, without any aids.

How do you determine your serving size? Parents used to ask: “how many spoons do you put”, and now we ourselves are faced with this problem. It is known that there should be just enough food on the plate so as not to leave the table hungry, but also not to overeat.

How to achieve this? After all, sometimes it’s still hard to resist an extra piece of the pie.

Experiment

As a result, it was determined that, regardless of education, the difference in estimating the number of grams on a plate compared to the actual amount was from 22 to 48%. This means that a person cannot always determine by eye the serving size in grams that he is going to eat. From this it turns out that (a rather popular method of losing weight) is not always adequate and corresponds to what is actually eaten. Be that as it may, it is not always the same to weigh products on a kitchen scale. The way out of this problem turned out to be simple.

What will overeating lead to?

Consider the distribution of food components that entered the gastrointestinal tract (GIT).

A person needs about 1.8-2.0 g of protein per kilogram of weight per day. When used in more, amino acids and polypeptides (components of proteins) from products will not be absorbed. But there will be stagnation of food in the gastrointestinal tract, the processes of decay will begin. Obstipation (constipation) may occur. Signs of impaired motility of the gastrointestinal tract appear on the skin of the face. The work of the glands is disrupted. And this most often leads to the appearance of a rash. inflammatory nature. Read our article - to know how to avoid such negative manifestations.

With carbohydrates and fats, the situation is different. All of them are used by the body for its needs. At the same time, the amount of fats and carbohydrates eaten is distributed according to the needs of the body. These components are used for:

1) digestion of incoming products;
2) brain work;
3) providing a basic level of cell activity (this minimal amount energy needed to sustain life)
4) performance by cells of their special functions that require increased energy costs;
5) cuts skeletal muscles;
6) accumulation of glycogen in the liver and muscles.

After a meal, carbohydrates in the gastrointestinal tract undergo many changes. They are eventually broken down into glucose, which is absorbed into the small intestine into the blood. Thanks to insulin, it enters all cells of the body. And in the brain, liver and muscles, its intake is determined by the concentration gradient. The more glucose circulates in the blood, the more it will enter these organs. If you overeat, then the amount of glucose will increase dramatically, and the consumption of its organs will increase accordingly. Muscles and liver will accumulate glycogen (normally, the muscles of a woman weighing 65 kg contain 400 grams of glycogen). If there is a lot of this glycogen, it begins to flow into fat cells. It's very hard to get it out of there.

The same thing happens with fats. But when one gram of carbohydrates is broken down, 9 kcal of energy is released. For proteins and fats, this figure is 4.1-4.3 kilocalories.

Therefore, the portion size with proper nutrition should correspond to the needs of the body.

Determining the portion size

I The simple method

II Precise method

1) palm adult woman equal to 100 grams of white meat (chicken or fish);
2) 200 g occupy the same volume as a woman's fist (the same amount in one glass);
3) half a teaspoon the size of a fingernail thumb(this is 5 grams), for example, how much you need to use sunflower oil in a day;
4) 10 g is placed in a tablespoon (the area of ​​​​two nails thumbs);
5) a handful of one palm holds two tablespoons of liquid; a portion of salad, porridge, pasta is also placed here.

1) protein food should be like a palm;
2) a vegetarian plate (fruits, vegetables, salads without dressing) can be fist-sized;
3) the part that falls on complex carbohydrates is equal to one palm;
4) two phalanges of the thumb are equal to the amount of fat on the plate.

In order to not feel hungry at the same time, it is necessary to reduce the energy return of food by 500 kcal. Based on these calculations, a person needs a day: three palms (two protein and one carbohydrate), three fists and one phalanx of the thumb. To satisfy the feeling of hunger, you can increase the vegetable portion.

conclusions

The concept of "nutrition" includes:

• the amount and time of meals during the day
• distribution daily ration according to its energy value, chemical composition, food set and weight for breakfast, lunch
• intervals between meals
• time spent eating

The human body is extremely complex. The harmonic balance of this complex system, which is under the constant influence of the external environment, is what we call health.

An important role in maintaining the normal functioning of the body and its health is played by the rhythm of nutrition. The human body is designed in such a way that certain time the whole digestive tract prepares itself for eating and signals this. A person who is accustomed to a certain diet can check the clock by the signals of his stomach. If, for some reason, the next meal did not take place, the body is forced to rebuild, and this entails negative consequences.

At the hour allotted for eating, or some time later, when thinking about food, gastric juice begins to flow into the stomach, which has a great digestive capacity, and if at this time there is no food in the stomach, the secreted juice begins to act on the walls of the stomach and duodenum. Frequent violations diet leads to the formation of ulcers, gastritis and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In order to avoid such consequences of violation normal nutrition it is recommended to eat something during normal meal hours if it is not possible to eat normally.

Human nutrition is regulated by the central nervous system. This is controlled by the so-called food center (appetite center) in the brain. And for normal and correct operation this center is extremely important correct mode nutrition. You need to eat a certain number of times during the day and at certain, strictly established intervals, if possible, correctly distributing food for each of the meals (both in terms of volume and calorie content, and in terms of the composition of nutrients).

As mentioned above, a person who is accustomed to a developed diet at a certain time has a feeling of hunger, an appetite appears. But you need to know that hunger and appetite are not the same thing. Hunger is what it is physiological state when the amount necessary for the normal functioning of the body ceases to flow into the blood nutrients. Appetite, on the other hand, can appear at the mere sight or even at the memory of delicious food(although physiological need in a new portion of food in the body in this moment No).

It happens and vice versa - there is no appetite, although the body already needs the next portion of food. Both increased appetite, not caused by physiological necessity, and its absence are disease state, most often caused by a systematic violation of the basic rules of nutrition. A normal food reflex is developed from childhood, when the body is formed and eating habits (including harmful ones) are laid. You need to know that in children the food center (reflex) is especially easily excited not only by the type of food, but also by the mention of it. Satisfaction of each unjustified physiological need for the manifestation of appetite will inevitably lead to a violation of proper digestion, to overeating.

The question of how many times to eat a day, at what intervals and what calorie content to take during each meal is one of the problems that is carefully studied by specialists, including the Institute of Nutrition of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Researches of scientists have shown that a one-time meal is generally unacceptable: the human body is in tension with such a meal, not only does it work incorrectly. digestive system but also all other systems and organs of the body, especially the nervous system. Two meals a day also causes bad feeling. A person with such nutrition experiences severe hunger, and the digestibility of the most important part diet- protein on average is no more than 75 percent of the intake. With three meals a day, a person feels better, food is eaten with good appetite, and the digestibility of protein at the same time increases to 85 percent. With four meals a day, protein digestibility remains at the same 85 percent, but a person’s well-being is even better than with three meals a day. In the experiment, scientists have proved that with five and six meals a day, appetite worsens and, in some cases, protein digestibility decreases.

Conclusion: for a healthy person, it is most rational to eat 4 times a day; three meals a day are also acceptable. As for medical nutrition with obesity, gastritis, colitis and other diseases, the doctor prescribes the diet and diet.

Now about the intervals between meals. From a physiological point of view, it would be ideal to start the next meal only when the digestion of the food eaten in the previous meal is over. To this must be added that digestive organs like any other organ human body need rest periods. And finally, digestion has a certain effect on all processes occurring in the body, including the activity of the central nervous system. The combination of these conditions leads to the fact that in a person accustomed to a measured diet, it is in right time there is a normal appetite.

One of the indicators of the duration of the act of digestion is the time of removal of food from the stomach. It has been established that at normal operation stomach and other digestive organs, the process of digestion of food lasts about 4 hours. Each meal results in more or less pronounced change states of the central nervous system. After eating, especially plentiful, some apathy sets in, attention decreases, the will relaxes, a person tends to sleep, that is, in the language of a physiologist, conditioned reflex activity falls. This state of the central nervous system, which occurs immediately after eating, lasts depending on the abundance food taken for an hour or more. Then all these sensations smooth out, and finally, by the end of the fourth hour, the food center comes to normal condition- Appetite reappears. And if a person who is accustomed to the regime does not eat in a timely manner, he becomes weak, attention decreases, and working capacity decreases. And in the future, appetite may disappear. If you are systematically late with food or eat on a full stomach, normal activity digestive glands are disturbed, digestion is upset. More long span between meals falls on the period of night sleep, but it should not exceed 10-11 hours. General rule is the following: between small meals, the intervals can be short (2-3 hours), but it is not advisable to eat earlier than 2 hours after the previous meal. On average, the breaks between meals should be 4-5 hours.

Of great importance is the distribution of the daily diet, that is, the preparation of the menu. Here the questions of the quantity of food, its qualitative composition and the sequence in the intake of individual dishes are combined.

The total amount of food consumed by a person per day, along with liquid meals and drinks, averages about 3 kilograms. Breakfast is the first meal after sleep. During a night's sleep, everything eaten the day before was digested, all the organs of the body, including the digestive ones, rested and were created. favorable conditions for their future work. Scientists involved in nutrition are unanimous that it is necessary to have breakfast, regardless of whether physical or mental activity a person is doing. It can only be about what part of the diet should include breakfast. It is believed that if a person is engaged in physical labor, then breakfast should contain approximately 1/3 daily ration both in terms of volume and nutritional value. If the person physical labor eats a small amount and nutritional value breakfast or even worse - he starts work on an empty stomach, then he cannot work with full load, and his performance drops significantly. It has now become fashionable, especially among knowledge workers, to limit themselves to a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast. They refer to the lack of time and appetite. Both are the result wrong image life, general regime, including diet. Putting things in order in the diet (as, indeed, in the whole way of life) is quite within the power of a person, and anyone who wants to can overcome the bad habit of eating unhealthy food, and by the way, give up bad habits such as alcohol abuse and smoking.