Most cavemen ate once a day. They would rise up early and hunt/prepare the prey. This would take most of the day. They would eat nuts and fruits throughout the day as snacks.
Several hundred years ago, people didn't follow the three meals a day rule. In fact, Native Americans employed a practical approach to food. They ate when they were hungry. The three meals per day concept originated with Englanders who achieved financial prosperity.
They ate 20 to 25 plant-based foods a day," said Dr Berry. So contrary to common belief, palaeolithic man was not a raging carnivore. He was an omnivore who loved his greens. He would have gathered seeds to eat, used plants and herbs for flavouring and preserving fish and meat, and collected wild berries.
For the majority of human history, people ate one or two meals per day. The current time-restricted eating patterns like the 16:8 or one meal a day diet (OMAD) mimic this ancient phenomenon. During periods without food, the body evolved to tap into fat stores for energy.
As it turns out, eating three meals a day stemmed from European settlers, with whom it grew into the normal routine, eventually becoming the eating pattern of the New World. Native Americans were actually eating whenever they felt the urge to, rather than whenever the clock said morning, noon, or night.
Australians tend to eat three meals a day: Breakfast – eaten in the morning is either light and cold (cereal, toast, coffee) or heavy and hot (bacon, eggs, sausages, fried tomato) Lunch – eaten around 12 – 2 pm is usually a light meal such as a sandwich, or salad.
Three square meals a day are so overrated. At least, that's what a Victorian American might have said when faced with the prospect of eating a mere breakfast, lunch and dinner. NPR's Linton Weeks reports that the idea of three meals a day might be more modern than we think.
"The Romans believed it was healthier to eat only one meal a day," food historian Caroline Yeldham told BBC News Magazine in 2012. "They were obsessed with digestion and eating more than one meal was considered a form of gluttony. This thinking impacted on the way people ate for a very long time."
The Romans would eat three times a day: a quick breakfast, a light snack for lunch, and a more consistent dinner starting between 3 and 5 PM that for rich families could even last up to 6-8 hours on special occasions.
Much like today, families usually ate three daily meals. The main meal in the 1800s, however, was not the large evening meal that is familiar to us today. Rather, it was a meal called dinner, enjoyed in the early afternoon. Supper was a smaller meal eaten in the evening.
In Western culture, it is a common idea that the daily food intake should be divided into three square meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Often dieticians suggest adding two snacks (morning and afternoon) to help appetite control, and indeed the mainstream media message is to eat “five to six times a day”.
The average age at menarche for modern hunter-gatherers seems a much more accurate estimation for a Paleolithic woman). This means that the average woman would have Child 1 at 19, Child 2 at 22, and Child 3 at 25 – and then, according to the “cavemen died young” theory, she would die.
Our ancestors ate more fat than modern humans. Muscle meat from game animals is very lean, but Stone Agers ate everything edible, such as marrow, brain, organ meat, and fat deposits from the thoracic and abdominal cavities, not just muscle as we tend to consume today. Optimal foraging means using the whole carcass.
"English settlers in teh seventeenth century ate three meals a day, as they had in England... For most people, breakfast consisted of bread, cornmeal mush and milk, or bread and milk together, and tea. Even the gentry might eat modestly in the morning, although they could afford meat or fish...
Three meals a day: An origin story
In ancient Rome, the custom was to eat one large meal, plus two small, light meals. In the US, our eating habits are now typically organized around our workdays or school days. But cultural norms aside, there's no scientific reason for you to eat exactly three meals every day.
It was in the 17th Century that the working lunch started, where men with aspirations would network. The middle and lower classes eating patterns were also defined by their working hours. By the late 18th Century most people were eating three meals a day in towns and cities, says Day.
Studies show that the city dwellers ate a variety of meats, dairy, grains and other plants. The shards yielded traces of proteins found in barley, wheat and peas, along with several animal meats and milks.
The main course, or “mensae primae,” frequently consists of meat. Caesar likely enjoyed dishes like roasted boar, venison, or bird. These are accompanied by various vegetable dishes, often including lentils, beans, or cabbage. Cabbage and onions were a dish that upper class Romans might have enjoyed!
Grains, legumes, vegetables, eggs and cheeses were the base of the diet, with fruit and honey for sweetness. Meat (mostly pork), and fish were used sparingly, and as the empire expanded beginning in the 3rd Century BC, Romans welcomed new flavours – be it pepper from India or lemons from Persia.
Fruits, green leafy parts of plants, shoots, seeds, nuts, roots and tubers are the fundamental components of the primate eating pattern – and common sense tells us that these foods should be the foods that humans eat, too.
The horizontal position was believed to aid digestion – and it was the utmost expression of an elite standing. “The Romans actually ate lying on their bellies so the body weight was evenly spread out and helped them relax.
Before that climate shift, our distant human ancestors—collectively known as hominins—were subsisting mostly on fruits, leaves, seeds, flowers, bark and tubers. As the temperature rose, the lush forests shrank and great grasslands thrived.
Greece—CR Elena Paravantes. Greeks typically have four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, afternoon coffee and dinner. Traditionally the largest meal was lunch, but many have changed their habits to a more Westernized style of living.
The fire in the stove was lit twice a day, but there were usually 4 meals during the day.
Kane Tanaka, a 119-year-old woman from Fukuoka, Japan who currently reigns as the oldest living person, eats rice, fish and soup.