Everyday Systems

This is not to promote low carb eating, but to comment on the changes that seem to be occuring within the parameters Atkins Dieting. Some years ago it was OK to eat indiscriminantly while on Atkins if the foods were low carb.

Last night while sitting in the sauna I picked up a copy of The New Atkins for the New You. On page 67 the authors stated that "You should eat reagularly 3 meals a day...with 1-2 snacks a day...however, snacks are not necessary." And to paraphrase, "If you can get through the day without snacking, you don't have you."

The paradigm seems to be shifting in the world of Atkins as well.

Yes, some people are beginning to see that the "eat every two hours" advice is bogus.

I started doing research on how we evolved to the three meals a day + snacks routine and I found that amazingly in most cultures in times past only ate twice a day or three meals at most with one being a light snacky kind of thing.

Oh, how we have been brainwashed.

Simple Life, did you see this? It is from How Italian Food Conquered the World by John Mariani.

Otherwise, the church preached frugality in extremis. In the monasteries, monks had vegetable and herb gardens, but largely depended on the local farms and towns to provide their sustenance, except for the mendicant orders, which depended entirely on begging. Not until the sixth century, when the Benedictines changed the rules for monks' diets, were they allowed to eat two meals a day; prior to that, monks subsisted on a single meal of porridge, dried biscuits, and little else. Still, only one meal was allowed on fast days, which could number at least two hundred per year.

It's been postulated that part of the reason people in the Mediterranean, especially the Greeks, have been so healthy is because of the fasting they do for religious reasons. It may not be a complete fast, but abstinence from certain foods, especially meat and olive oil!

I'm not much of a breakfast eater, and when I do eat breakfast, it's usually very light. If I happen to eat a larger lunch, I generally eat a very light dinner. On weekends I tend to do brunch and dinner and it works very well for me. The brunch is substantial and dinner will be light. It's rare that I eat two substantial meals daily.

Thanks for that excerpt wosnes.

It is amazing that people in times past lived on small meals and infrequent meals and yet they moved much more than we do because they didn't have all the conveniences that we have today. And some how we think we are going to die if asked to go more than four hours without a nibble and many of us sit at a desk for 8 hours a day

I think fasting is a great way to cleanse the body and discipline one's eating habits. Even when I reach my goal size and add in another small meal to maintain, I intend to incorporate a few days of just one or two meals. I think it is good for the body.

I love how "three meals" and "fasting" are now related concepts, thanks to permasnacking.

Our ancestors were grateful to get three meals! Explicitly so, usually -- saying "grace" before each meal. Imagine if people said grace every time they snacked -- they'd be praying all day long.

Maybe that's an idea for a diet... the "pray every time you eat diet." It's a speed bump and can one in good conscience thank God for a bag of chips? For something unhealthy and excessive and cheap? Worst case scenario you'd wind up with a correspondingly big soul to go with your big body.

Alternate name: "The Fasting and Slowing Diet."

You either fast or slow yourself down with a pre-meal prayer.

Reinhard

reinhard wrote:I love how "three meals" and "fasting" are now related concepts, thanks to permasnacking.

Our ancestors were grateful to get three meals! Explicitly so, usually -- saying "grace" before each meal. Imagine if people said grace every time they snacked -- they'd be praying all day long.

Maybe that's an idea for a diet... the "pray every time you eat diet." It's a speed bump and can one in good conscience thank God for a bag of chips? For something unhealthy and excessive and cheap? Worst case scenario you'd wind up with a correspondingly big soul to go with your big body.

Alternate name: "The Fasting and Slowing Diet."

You either fast or slow yourself down with a pre-meal prayer.

Reinhard

I went to a college run by a church (a major college), and it wasn't uncommon for students to pray before every meal. I never learned not to cringe when someone would ask the Dear Lord to bless the pizza (doughnuts, "refreshments", etc...) to "nourish and strengthen us..."

I am nourished all right!