Why You Should Give up Meals Completely
Dr Vernon Coleman
Eating three square meals a day is old-fashioned and bad for you. Meal times are not natural. They were invented because they just happen to fit in with the way most of us work and live. If you get most of your calories three times a day at fixed meal times then you are almost certain to end up overweight. Calories that aren't burnt up straight away will end up stuck on your hips. In addition, there is also no doubt that you will make yourself more prone to stomach problems. Regular meals are better for you than irregular meals and regular small meals are better than regular big meals. By eating regularly you'll be helping to mop up some of the acid in your stomach. If you eat irregularly the acid in your stomach will have nothing to get its teeth into.
We've lost the art of knowing when we've had enough to eat. Most of us make the mistake of always finishing the food on our plates because we've been trained that wasting food is wrong.
Your stomach will be much healthier (and far less likely to succumb to stress) if you re-establish control of your appetite control centre by eating when you feel hungry, stopping when you feel full – and nibbling smaller meals more frequently rather than stuffing yourself with large meals occasionally.
The healthy way to eat is to eat mini-meals – and to eat little and often. You probably think of it as nibbling. Marketing experts call it `grazing' because it is the way that wild animals eat. Whatever you call it eating numerous small meals is much better for you – in a number of ways – than eating just three big meals. If you nibble – instead of gorging yourself on three big meals a day – you will have lower cholesterol levels and be less likely to suffer from heart disease. And I think your stomach and your intestinal tract, will be especially grateful to you.
All the available evidence shows clearly that if you eat mini meals whenever you are hungry your body will burn up the calories you consume. By spreading your energy intake throughout the day you won’t ever feel hungry or faint. And you will be far less likely to put on weight than someone who eats three square meals a day.
Remember: meals are bad for you.
Most of us eat at fixed meal-times. We eat at breakfast time, in the middle of the day and again in the evening. But as far as your body is concerned this is a bizarre, unnatural and thoroughly irrational way to eat. Your body doesn't just need food three times a day. It needs energy supplies all day long. By choosing to eat fixed meals you create problems for yourself.
When you eat at fixed mealtimes you eat whether you are hungry or not. Instead of obeying your body's inbuilt appetite control centre you eat because the clock shows that it is time to eat. Your body's internal appetite control can make sure that you never get fat – if only you let it. But eating meals at fixed meal times means that your natural appetite control centre doesn't get a chance to work properly.
When you eat at fixed mealtimes you tend to eat what is available, what you have prepared or what you have been given – whether you need it or not. It is easy to eat the wrong foods – and to eat too much.
Because you and your body know that it will be some hours before you eat another big meal there is a tendency to overeat. Your body then stores the excess food as fat so that you can live off the fatty stores while you are not eating. But because you probably nibble a little between meals your body will never need to burn up that stored fat – besides your next fixed mealtime probably comes just before your body starts burning up those stored fat deposits.
Try to get into the habit of eating only when you are hungry. And remember that what I call the mini meal diet will work best if you leave between 60 to 90 minute gaps between mini meals. Moreover, the mini meal grazing diet won't just help you get slim it will also help you to live longer. When you start eating mini meals you will probably find that you are fussier about what you eat – and you will eat only what your body needs.
By eating just what your body needs you will look younger, feel more energetic, feel sexier, avoid infections and diseases such as arthritis and live longer.
Research done in Okinawa in Japan found that people living there are 40% less than other Japanese people – they also had lower rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and mental illness. And it was found that more people from Okinawa lived to be 100 years old than from anywhere else in Japan.
Reducing your food intake will probably increase your life expectancy and reduce your susceptibility to illness.
But do remember: if you are going to start the mini meal diet then you must stop eating meals. You can't eat mini meals and ordinary meals as well.
You don't have to be unsociable and leave your family and friends to eat alone. If they want a meal sit down with them but just eat a snack.
NOTE
The essay above is taken from Vernon Coleman’s book called `Stomach Problems: Relief at Last. (The subtitle is `How to conquer wind, indigestion, heartburn, gastritis, ulcers and similar digestive problems’.) For more information and to purchase a copy CLICK HERE.
Copyright Vernon Coleman June 2025
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