Food! Call it nature’s own fuel for humanity or just an everyday need, we almost always cannot go a day without it. Aside it’s taste and satisfaction coupled with the numerous health and nutritional benefits, food is just great! Well, according to statistics, the human body can only last about 3 weeks (21 days) without food and about a week (7 days) without water.
Legend has it that the great Mahatma Gandhi survived 21 days of complete starvation. WOW! In present day, this seems quite impossible. Although the religious and spiritual folk might argue that some Christians and Muslims fast 30 days and more, that exercise cannot be classified as living without food because at some point in the day, they take a bite or two.
However, apart from eating to survive, it has become evidently clear that eating once isn’t enough for most people. Many dieticians have given several reasons for the need to eat 3 times a day. This is what many term ‘’3 square meals’’.
Being that a square has 4 sides, you may be wondering why meals in a day are tagged 3 square. Jumia Food, Africa’s leading online food delivery service looks at whether eating 3 square meals in a day is a necessity or just luxury.
Breakfast, lunch or supper? Which of these is your favorite meal of the day? Can you skip one or maybe two of them? If your answer to the last question is yes, then you belong to the group who think 3 square meals in a day is just a luxury.
If your answer was a big NO, then you are on the other side of the fence and you think eating all 3 meals in a day is a great necessity. Let’s see who has a case as per the underlisted points.
1. It’s merely an adopted routine – Come to think about it, who made it a rule to eat in the morning, afternoon and evening? Looks like it is more conventional than obligatory. Due to the many benefits of eating 3 square meals, we have all automatically accepted that this routine is very necessary. However, eating 3 times in a day is a routine adopted by the new world from early practices of Europeans and Americans. Rather than tie ourselves to eating 3 times in a day, why don’t we rather consider what may happen if we don’t eat at all or if what we eat isn’t healthy. Food is good, never play with it.
2. Your Health is your wealth – Cornell University researchers say it’s better to avoid going without food for more than three to four hours. This however doesn’t mean you should go on an eating spree and eat 6 to 7 times in a day. The end result is usually associated with fattening or obesity. What this basically means is that you eat to stay healthy and for your body to function well. Without food, your body will not function properly. Eating good food and the right amounts of it is also very essential. Expensive food isn’t always good food and 3 meals by ‘’Kofi’’ may be less healthy than 1 meal by ‘’Ama’’. Don’t just eat because you have to eat 3 times in a day, watch what you eat. It’s about what you eat and not how many times you eat.
3. Time – In this day and age where time is a very important ‘’commodity’’, we go through each day with less time to eat. Work and other activities limit us and we hardly have enough time to prepare a good meal let alone 3 in a day. This begs for the reliance on fast food and quick online delivery services such as Jumia Food. With just a few clicks on your phone or computer, your preferred food is delivered to your doorstep. Whatever you wish to eat, provided at affordable prices. How then is eating 3 times a luxury? Eat what you must and save what you can. You eat because you have to and can afford it and not because you want to. Maybe your job is too demanding for you to consider eating 3 times. Then you can schedule a good eating regime of skipping either lunch or dinner. Whatever you do, make sure you eat at least once in a day and eat well. You need the energy.
4. Availability is the principal determinant – When talking about whether something is a necessity or luxury, we need to consider whether that item is readily available or not. There are some who can only afford one or two meals in a day and there are others who can afford up to 4 or more. Although it is very true that you eat what you have, it is also very true that you must find a way to eat well. Finding the balance between eating well and eating 3 times is often confusing. If you have the means to eat 3 good meals in day, then it’s not a luxury. However, if you don’t have the means to do that but still want to eat 3 times just because it’s a routine, then that can be called luxury.
Listen to your stomach and not the ticking of the clock!!! Our appetites don’t chime on the hour. Eating 3 times is not a luxury, neither is it a necessity. You eat when you must. Just eat what you need to and when you need just to stay alive and healthy.