Build A Lunch

What is the true purpose to “Lunch”?

Lunch is typically a mid-day meal that has no size or meal preparation that is normal for any one person or occasion. In the US though lunch is usually advertised as a lighter meal that comes before the prime large meal called dinner. It may be a surprise, then, when I say that the earlier the meal the lighter it should be, actually. Rather than waiting for the meal at the end of the day to be the heaviest we should actually be eating the largest meal in the morning and get lighter throughout the day. Why is this? Calories of course. As we are up and walking, or even sitting, throughout our waking hours we are burning calories. Yes, we burn a lot more calories during our waking hours then our nighttime sleep hours. Let us look at some of the literature that supports this viewpoint.

Timing of Meal Time

In a study by Takahashi et al. (2023) meal timing, sleep, age, and circadian rhythm in groups of people had significant impact on gene expression and disease formation of aging. In this study, earlier meals and earlier sleep arrangements had the most positive impact on people’s health.

Kaur, Tang, and Kok (2023) studied BMI and obesity in adults and how these areas are related to timing and heavier meals. The people in this study showed direct impact on BMI and obesity when meals were eaten later in the evening and were heavier. The persons in the study who ate earlier and heavier meals at morning and lunch times were less likely to have obesity.

FULL LONGER

When creating a lunch try to create a meal that is going to keep you full for several hours and into the later evening to guard against overeating during the dinner time meal. You should also try to eat mid meal snacks to hold through each period of time without hunger uncontrollable that you end up eating so much you overeat.

OVEREATING

Overeating is a legitimate risk for any person eating a meal or snack. What exactly does it mean to overeat? The Cambridge Dictionary defines overeating as eating more than one’s body needs to be satiated and full, and to eat so much that discomfort results. Long et al. (2020) studied the perception people have regarding what overeating is and how it is defined and found that the most common definition of ‘what overeating is’ equated to “eating outside of hunger”, followed by “mindless eating, eating more than some normative amount, and a lack of restriction.”

References

Cambridge Dictionary. (2024). Overeating. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/overeating

Kaur, S., Ng, C. M., Tang, S. Y., & Kok, E. Y. (2023). Weight status of working adults: The effects of eating misalignment, chronotype, and eating jetlag during mandatory confinement. Chronobiology International, 40(4), 406–415. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2023.2186120

Long EV, Vartanian LR, Herman CP, Polivy J. What does it mean to overeat? Eat Behav. 2020 Apr;37:101390. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2020.101390. Epub 2020 May 3. PMID: 32434120.

Takahashi, M., Fukazawa, M., Tahara, Y., Kim, H.-K., Tanisawa, K., Ito, T., Nakaoka, T., Higuchi, M., & Shibata, S. (2023). Association between circadian clock gene expressions and meal timing in young and older adults. Chronobiology International, 40(9), 1235–1243. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2023.2256855