I tell my clients to let go of what they think dinner should be. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks as well. An avocado and some hard boiled eggs can be dinner. Steak and almonds can be breakfast. Your body doesn’t care. Back in the wild, if we were lucky enough to make a kill, the family or tribe would feast off of it all day long, maybe longer. When apple trees gave off their fruit, we ate apples for a while. However, as time went on and food become more readily available, we as a society started to develop certain norms with regard to meals. Some of the worst norms pertain to dinner, particularly in America:
– IT’S THE LARGEST MEAL OF THE DAY. Quite the contrary. Our metabolism slows down as the day goes on. Consuming large amounts of calories at a time that we can’t efficiently burn them is never a good idea. Most of our calories should be consumed earlier on in the day when we need more energy for fuel, and when our metabolism is up to the task.
– THE MAIN DISH NEEDS TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY MULTIPLE SIDE DISHES. Extra side dishes just add more calories at a time we don’t need them. It’s even worse when the sides are starchy or high in carbs. Chicken with broccoli is enough. We don’t need chicken with baked beans, mashed potatoes and broccoli.
– IT TAKES TOO MUCH TIME TO COOK. There are plenty of meals that you can prep quickly. It doesn’t take very long to throw a turkey burger on the grill and some asparagus with pepper and garlic and a toaster oven. Slice up some avocado and put it on top of the turkey burger and that’s a “meal”. You can also prep your meal in the morning and use a slow cooker, or take some time over the weekend to prep your meals for the week.
– IT HAS TO BE A FORMAL MEAL. We also need to revisit what exactly a “meal” is. A meal can be whatever you want it to be. An omelette can be dinner. A salad can be dinner. You can eat steak and nuts for breakfast if you want (see “article of the week” about the health benefits of a meat and nut breakfast). This should open up the playbook on the “no time to cook” theory.
– CONSUMING ALCOHOL BEFORE EATING. This is one of the worst possible things you can do before meal. Consuming alcohol (any alcohol) on an empty stomach shoots your insulin levels through the roof, triggering other hormones like adrenaline, and then cortisol. The insulin surge also makes our eyes bigger than our stomach, and we often order way more than we need to eat. Restaurant owners know this, which is why they’ll direct you to the bar even if your table is ready. All alcohol is metabolized as sugar in the body (even vodka with club soda). Once our body gets a taste of sugar, it craves more. This leads to typically unhealthy, carbohydrate-based eating patterns, and worst of all…dessert!
Sure, we all love going out to dinner and enjoying a nice big meal. However, that should be the exception to the rule. Our typical home-cooked meals should vary depending on factors like schedule, metabolic type, and meal frequency. It’s perfectly fine if your biggest meal of the day happens before noon. It’s also fine if you eat 6 equally sized meals a day. Listen to your body, and always make time to prep and cook whole food, home-cooked meals.