What break between meals is considered acceptable? Interval of food intake in separate meals. Proper nutrition. Menu for the week

Modern people are forced to constantly think about everyday things. problems, many of them are sorely lacking time for physical exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, taking medications is considered the fastest way of treatment, which makes it possible to improve your well-being and not be distracted from everyday worries. You can’t be so careless about your health, much less take all the drugs that are advertised as the most effective, without a doctor’s prescription and in large quantities in order to get immediate results.

Each person bears his own responsibility for your health. For successful treatment of any disease, do not take medications, following only the instructions included with the drug. Be sure to consult with your doctor and check the dose with him. If the doses indicated in the instructions and those prescribed by the doctor differ significantly, then check with the attending physician again about the correctness of its prescription. To successfully treat the disease, you should trust doctors and not self-medicate; perhaps the doctor has good reason to prescribe you a dose that is not indicated in the instructions. You can check the dose of the medicine using an independent source of information, for example, using the Vidal, Mashkovsky, Compendium or Trinus reference book of medicines, which today can be easily found on various websites.

You have probably heard more than once from various friends: “I don’t eat after six.” There are quite a few people who believe that the key to losing weight is to “not eat at night.” Why “night” begins for everyone at six o’clock in the evening, regardless of when a person goes to bed and when he gets up, is difficult to say - it probably just happened that way. In fact, certain differences in daytime and nighttime metabolism certainly exist, and regular nighttime snacking is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and cancer. These differences may be due to different levels of the hormones cortisol and melatonin at different times of the day and their effect on metabolic regulation. However, there is no scientific data that would show that at exactly six o'clock in the evening all people unanimously cross some kind of magical line, beyond which intense weight gain begins. But try to tell some “don’t eat after six” lover about the pointlessness of such an idea (especially when at half past six he devours a portion of pasta or french fries) and he will most likely answer you that it personally helps him. And he will be right: the idea of ​​not eating after six, for all its senselessness, really works.

It's all about intermittent fasting - regular long periods during which the body does not receive any food and is forced to start burning its own fat reserves. If a person does not eat after six and leads a normal lifestyle, then he will most likely have breakfast no earlier than 8-9 o’clock in the morning - i.e. 14-15 hours after dinner. And this is very good and should really help you lose weight. But there is no reason to be tied specifically to six o’clock in the evening - many at this time are still at work or driving home through traffic jams, and not everyone wants to walk around hungry all evening. The principle is simple: the later you had dinner, the later you should have breakfast. Or, for example, skip breakfast and have lunch early - at 12 o'clock. One of the most popular intermittent fasting schemes is 16:8, i.e. All meals should fit within an 8-hour window. For example, from 12 noon to 8 pm or from 10 am to 6 pm - whichever is more convenient. If, due to your work schedule, it is inconvenient to keep the “fasting window” at 16 hours, then you can do less, for example, 13-15 hours - this will still be beneficial.

To test this claim, the BBC conducted a small but interesting study. 16 volunteers were divided into two groups. One group, the control group, continued to eat as usual. Participants in the second group, the experimental group, were given instructions to change their eating schedule: have breakfast an hour and a half later than usual, and dinner an hour and a half earlier. They were forbidden to have a snack between dinner and breakfast. So they extended their usual overnight fasting period by three hours. At the same time, they ate the same things as usual.

After 10 weeks of the experiment, examination of the participants showed a fairly significant difference between the two groups. Here are graphs showing the difference in metabolic parameters between the control group (blue) and the experimental group (red):

Volume of adipose tissue:

Blood sugar level:

Now about the intervals between meals. Ideal from a physiological point of view, it would be to start the next meal only when the digestion of the food eaten at the previous meal has finished. To this we must add that the digestive organs, like every other organ of the human body, need periods of rest. And finally, digestion has a certain impact on all processes occurring in the body, including the activity of the central nervous system. The combination of these conditions leads to the fact that a person accustomed to a measured diet develops a normal appetite at the right time.

One of the indicators of the duration of the act of digestion is the time it takes for food to be removed from the stomach. It has been established that with normal functioning of the stomach and other digestive organs, the process of digesting food lasts about 4 hours. Each meal leads to a more or less pronounced change in the state of the central nervous system. After eating, especially a large one, some apathy sets in, attention decreases, the will relaxes, the person tends to sleep, that is, in the language of a physiologist, conditioned reflex activity decreases. This state of the central nervous system, which occurs immediately after eating, lasts, depending on the abundance of food taken, for an hour or more. Then all these sensations smooth out, and finally, by the end of the fourth hour, the food center returns to its normal state - appetite appears again. And if a person who is accustomed to the regime does not eat in a timely manner, he becomes weak, his attention decreases, and his performance decreases. Moreover, in the future, appetite may disappear. If you are systematically late with food or eat on a full stomach, the normal activity of the digestive glands is disrupted and digestion is upset. A longer period between meals occurs during night sleep, but it should not exceed 10-11 hours. The general rule is the following: the intervals between small meals can be short (2-3 hours), but eating earlier than 2 hours after the previous meal is not advisable. On average, breaks between meals should be 4-5 hours. food diet food menu

The distribution of the daily diet, that is, the preparation of a menu, is of great importance. This combines issues of food quantity, its quality composition and consistency in taking individual dishes.

The total amount of food consumed by a person per day, together with liquid dishes and drinks, is on average about 3 kilograms. Breakfast is the first meal after sleep. During the night's sleep, everything eaten the day before was digested, all organs of the body, including the digestive ones, rested and favorable conditions were created for their further work. Scientists involved in nutrition issues are unanimous that it is necessary to have breakfast, regardless of whether a person is engaged in physical or mental activity. We can only talk about what part of the diet should contain breakfast. It is believed that if a person is engaged in physical labor, then breakfast should contain approximately 1/3 of the daily ration, both in volume and nutritional value. If a person who does manual labor eats a breakfast that is insignificant in volume and nutritional value, or even worse, starts work on an empty stomach, then he cannot work at full load, and his performance drops significantly. It has now become fashionable, especially among knowledge workers, to limit themselves to a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast. They refer to lack of time and appetite. Both are the result of an incorrect lifestyle, general regimen, including diet. Putting things in order in your diet (as, indeed, in your entire lifestyle) is entirely within the power of a person, and anyone who wants to can overcome the bad habit of eating poorly, and by the way, give up bad habits such as alcohol abuse and smoking .

You need to distribute meals not only following the recommendations of doctors, but also at your own discretion. Do not take too long breaks in meals; it is better to eat 4-5 times during the day in small portions than to eat thoroughly 2 times, because in this case you will overload the stomach and it will be more difficult for it to digest all the food. In addition, waiting a long time to eat causes the release of large amounts of gastric juice, which corrodes the walls of the stomach and can cause the formation of ulcers.

Set your diet

You need to eat several times a day, with breaks of about 3-4 hours. This time may be a little less or a little more, depending on your habits, working hours and general well-being. You should not accustom your body to any specific nutritional method developed by nutritionists or doctors. If you work the second shift, it is unlikely that you should get up to eat at 7 or 8 am, and have dinner at 6 pm. It’s better to develop your own nutrition system based on your own daily routine. Perhaps your breakfast will start no earlier than 10 am, then the time for lunch, afternoon tea or dinner will shift to a later time.

The main thing here is to remember the rule: do not oversaturate the body with food, so that it absorbs the next portion on time and adhere to equal breaks in meals. Even if you are on a diet, do not torture your body with mandatory dinners before 6 pm. You can eat in the evening at any time, the main thing is not to go to bed immediately after eating, wait at least 4 hours before going to bed. That is, the time of dinner needs to be moved back from the time of your usual falling asleep, so that the food has time to be absorbed, and your stomach and digestive organs rest during the night. In addition, it will be useful to remember that between dinner and breakfast there should be a break of at least 14 hours - this time is enough for proper rest.

Distribute your meals correctly

Meals should be differentiated according to satiety. It is important to have a good breakfast in the morning, charging your body with energy, saturating it with fiber and carbohydrates. Some time after breakfast, you can have a small snack with fruit, yogurt or nuts. The largest meal should be at lunch - at this time the body works most actively and is able to digest large volumes of food. If you didn't have a second breakfast, 3 hours after lunch is the time to make a light afternoon snack. Finally, in the evening, it is useful to prepare a hearty dinner, but it should be lighter than your lunch.

You can distribute meals over larger quantities, the main thing is that the portions then decrease and do not remain the same. It is not necessary to weigh each portion on a scale: your body will tell you when it is full, you just need to stop in time and do not overeat. Do not eat a lot of fatty and fried foods, instead eat more fresh vegetables - they are excellent for promoting satiety, and contain few calories, in addition, they are rich in vitamins and microelements.

Throughout human evolution, the diet of our species has not been regular. As with the animals around us, feeding frequency depended on the availability of food. And it often had to be obtained in the literal sense of the word “blood and sweat.”

In the context of evolution, frequent eating is a very recent innovation, most likely driven by 24/7 access to food unprecedented in our history.

Eating constantly is easy - attractive, constant food is addictive. Eating less often or not eating at all for a period of time is tantamount to agony, deprivation and serious stress for many.

Meanwhile, recent scientific research suggests that in the long term, the practice of snacking and short intervals between meals can lead to negative health consequences.

How the body reacts to fractional nutrition

It's all about, as often happens, our hormonal reaction to food. Every time you and I put something in our mouth, often without thinking about it, a whole cascade of reactions occurs in the body at the cellular level.

We must digest, assimilate all the food we receive, get rid of the leftovers, and then do something with the energy received. Let's take a closer look at the last action.

The hormone insulin plays an important role in the distribution of energy received in our body. It is produced in response to almost every meal. Not only sugar, but also protein. We get minimal insulin response to eating fat.

Insulin is an important hormone for health, but as with everything, balance is very important. With frequent meals and the accompanying insulin response, the constant presence of insulin and the “imposition” of energy on the cells leads to them (the cells) developing a protective reaction.

Cells become less sensitive to insulin. The further, the more, which leads to the development of insulin resistance. This condition underlies such chronic diseases as metabolic syndrome, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease, etc.

This is not an instant process and is not universal in its impact on health. Its (insulin resistance) development and manifestation of symptoms depends on factors such as genetics, health status, physical activity, sleep, stress level.

What changes when we eat less often?

Increases cell sensitivity to insulin. The cells have time to spend the energy they receive and do not have to defend themselves against its action. Due to its more effective action, insulin levels decrease, and with it, among other things, excess weight goes away.

Adaptation to using fat for energy. Reducing insulin levels “opens the way” for us to burn fat, while the vast majority of people nowadays burn sugar by default. Meanwhile, our physiology is adapted to burning fat, at least as well as burning sugar. Fat, as a source of energy, also has a number of health benefits. This is a cleaner fuel, the combustion of which is accompanied by less oxidative stress and inflammatory processes that underlie aging and the development of chronic diseases.

Strengthening/restoring the immune system. Digestion of food is inevitably accompanied by inflammatory processes and oxidative stress. This is why during acute illnesses such as colds, appetite is temporarily suppressed. During fasting, the synthesis of inflammatory signaling molecules is suppressed, giving the immune system the opportunity to “calm down” and recover.

Recovery from chronic diseases. Therapeutic fasting is now actively used for therapeutic purposes to recover from a number of chronic diseases that are “incurable” in the opinion of modern medicine, such as autoimmune diseases (colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease), type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. One of the unique, powerful mechanisms through which recovery occurs is autophagy. For describing this effect of fasting, the Japanese received the Nobel Prize in Physiology.

How to start eating less often?

There's a reason many of us have such a hard time skipping meals. The release is accompanied by such unpleasant symptoms as headache, dizziness, irritability, and mood swings.

All these are indirect signs of dysregulation of blood sugar - its sudden changes. This is also a sign that your body has forgotten how to burn fat for energy and requires another portion of sugar.

By sugar I mean not only something that tastes sweet, but also flour, cereals, legumes, and root vegetables. Sometimes you have to limit all of the above products for a while in order to restore the body’s ability to deal with them.

A transition diet that will allow you to go long periods of time without eating without discomfort is based on plenty of vegetables, greens, clean animal sources of protein (like those without sugar), healthy fats from wild fish, eggs, grass-fed meat, nuts, seeds, in a small amount of berries and fruits.

This is a process of varying lengths that can be quite painful for many people.

But upon completion, it can provide many useful and pleasant bonuses, including clarity of thinking, improved memory and concentration, weight loss, and improvement in many chronic diseases.

Another valuable gift you will receive is freedom. Freedom from food, from the fact that every 3-4 hours you need to get/cook something somewhere. You are free to eat or not to eat, depending on the circumstances and your mood.

You no longer have to run to the first eatery you come across or a kiosk with pies in an unfamiliar place, “stepping on your own throat” while eating lunch on the plane.

And this happens without negative feelings - the body automatically switches to burning fat. You remain joyful, full of energy and strength!

What are the optimal intervals between meals?

An indicative interval for healthy carbohydrate metabolism, that is, healthy regulation of blood sugar levels, is a 6-hour interval between meals. If you can easily withstand it, it means your body is adapted to burning fat, does not depend on sugar, and has time in the form of these intervals to recover.

The practice of intermittent fasting—long intervals between meals—has recently gained great popularity and success as a therapeutic tool.

There are many variations of intermittent fasting. This practice can be adapted to suit your personal preferences, schedule, and goals. Experiment to see what works for you.

Common intermittent fasting intervals include::

The 12-hour fast described above is from dinner to breakfast. You finish dinner at 19 and start breakfast at 7.

16-hour, “fasting before brunch” - you finish dinner at 19, and then eat your next meal only at 11 am - the time at which brunch is served in English-speaking countries.

An 8-hour eating window – that is, you eat during the day, within 8 hours – usually means 2 meals a day. On a regular basis, suitable for trained people.

How to break fasting

At the intervals described above, not exceeding one and a half days, you will not need to do anything special to return to food.

Perhaps start with something easy to digest, such as broth, egg yolk, cooked vegetables. It is important that it is not sugar in any form - to avoid spikes in blood sugar and disruption of its (sugar) regulation after you have spent effort to restore it.

Give yourself 15-30 minutes after something light and then eat a full meal. Eating a nutritious meal after a period of fasting is a signal to the body that everything is fine and it should not perceive the situation as stressful.

Therefore, eat until you are full, however, try to do it measuredly and consciously, so as not to miss its (saturation) signs!

Be healthy!