It seems like every time I look at a magazine, there’s some new research on the best way to eat to lose weight, be healthier, and look my best. I guess three squares just don’t cut it anymore; today, the trend is more toward eating small meals throughout the day or grazing, eating only when you’re hungry, without restricting yourself to mealtimes. Forget the days when dieting meant you could hardly eat at all—now the approach is to be eating almost constantly, in hopes that it will fuel metabolism and stave off hunger cravings. Is this really a healthy way to eat, or just Hollywood hype?
Eat to Your Health
The idea of grazing overlaps with other eating philosophies, such as mindful or intuitive eating, learning to be fully aware of the ways in which your body responds to food and hunger, and the trend, since the 1980s, of snacking as a supplement to meals.
“Are you eating because you’re hungry or because it’s dinnertime?” is the question proponents of grazing ask. We’ve programmed ourselves to eat at certain times in order to set a social standard and leave time for other things, like work and play, but is this really what our bodies need? Our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably didn’t sit down to regular meals; more likely, they chose to pick up nuts and berries as they found them and as they needed to appease their hunger. Liberated from allegedly archaic mealtimess, grazers can instead revert to their own instincts, becoming mindful of their hunger and exactly what they would like to eat. That may mean munching on trail mix throughout the morning and eating a cheese sandwich at 4:00 p.m., rather than eating a full lunch and dinner and craving snacks later on.
There’s also evidence to support the theory that eating more frequently throughout the day is healthier in terms of preventing extreme hunger that leads to binge eating or overeating at meals, providing consistent fuel for an active lifestyle, and improving blood sugar control. One study, “Meal Patterns and Practical Applications for Obesity Management,” by Matthew F. Good, a registered dietician from the University of Akron, Ohio, looked at the eating habits of 665 overweight or obese subjects. While the study showed no significant increase in the subjects’ metabolism (one of the reputed benefits of frequent eating), it did reveal that the amount of calories the subjects ate at meals was indirectly related to the frequency with which they ate. That means that the more meals we eat, the smaller they are and, very probably, the fewer calories we take in for the whole day.
People who eat more often also tend to take in a wider range of nutrients than those with fewer meals. Sure, there are those for whom grazing means munching away on a bag of chips all day, but those who plan meals and snacks with plenty of variety leave less room for nutritional gaps in their diet. That’s not to say that you can’t eat a great, balanced diet with only three meals a day—only that it’s easier to hit all the parts of the food pyramid when you have more room to play around with different meal combinations.
But Mama Said Not to Spoil Your Appetite
Grazing may be the best way to eat for some people, especially those who lead very active lives, but it’s not for everyone. There are a few reasons why we shouldn’t all become grazers.
For those with emotional-eating problems, like sufferers of anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, the structure of three meals a day is important. Only with strict social and external guidelines for “normal” eating can people with these serious issues overcome their anxieties about food. Mindfulness is not an option for eating-disordered people because their bodies’ instinctual cues are so blocked by a skein of tangled emotions.
