Shownotes Transcript
In the red corner, we have the grazers, powered by an arsenal of snacks. In the blue corner, the breakfast, lunch and dinner team, waiting patiently for their next fix. The argument: should we eat little and often or stick to three square meals a day? It's a popular debate. You've probably heard convincing arguments on both sides. So who is right and who is wrong? The good news is the latest science says there's one clear answer.
This is Zoe's Science and Nutrition. I'm Jonathan Wolf, back today with top nutritional scientist, Sarah Berry, to settle this once and for all. What is healthier, little and often, or three meals a day? This episode is part of a limited series to celebrate the launch of the Big If Study, the world's biggest clinical study to discover how intermittent fasting really affects us.
By inviting our amazing community of citizen scientists to take part in this experiment, we hope to understand whether intermittent fasting really can improve how we feel, from our hunger levels to our mood and energy. To take part for free and discover if intermittent fasting can work for you, simply go to joinzoe.com/thebigif, that's T-H-E-B-I-G-I-F, or via the link in the show notes.
Sarah Berry has a firm handle on this debate because she spent the last five years working on the world's largest nutrition science study, ZoePredict. The last five years working on the Predict program of research, it's really highlighted the importance of not just the food that we eat, but the way in which we eat our foods. And one of the really important factors in this is what we call our dietary patterns. Before the ZoePredict program, similar studies had tried to evaluate the impact of meal timing and frequency.
but the number of people was simply too small to provide reliable data. Now we have it on good authority. It's not just what we eat, but also how we eat that matters. So why don't we get started with the arguments in favor of three meals per day? Lots of people say that we should consume fewer meals throughout the day to give our bodies time to rest. So this includes everything from our thousands of metabolic pathways within our bodies, but also our body's
gut microbiome, so these trillions of bacteria that are in our gut, they also need a rest. Your body does a lot behind the scenes that you're unaware of. And just like you, it needs some time off. If you're constantly eating, it's constantly working. The same goes for the good bacteria in your gut. Without rest, they can struggle to keep your body in tip-top condition.
What about the argument in favour of the grazers? Well, that's pretty straightforward. I get hangry three hours without eating and I'm not a pleasant person to be around. You're like that. Well, that's a matter of opinion, Sarah. No one else says I'm unpleasant. My wife says I'm fine when I don't eat. Maybe it's you that's hangry. Oh dear, I think it's time for my mid-afternoon snack. Hangry may be a result of plummeting blood glucose levels.
Your brain relies on glucose as a fuel source, so if these levels fall fast, it may perceive danger. The result? We snap, start fights with our significant other, and feel like every problem means the end of the world. Short term, this is solved with a bite to eat, which might just repeat the cycle of blood sugar spikes and dips.
However, there's also the argument that if we eat little and often, what we're doing is we're consuming smaller amounts of carbohydrate and fat at any given time. So we're potentially minimizing some of these big peaks that we might get in blood sugar that we know have an unfavorable downstream effect. And these downstream effects include a negative impact on your long term health and potentially weight gain.
Any excess energy that your body doesn't need right away, it stores as glycogen and fat. How much does this matter? Well, let's find out. Both sides of the argument sound compelling, but is there a winner? Sarah, armed with the data from the ZOE Predicts study, you probably know more than anyone on earth about this.
What's the bottom line? Little and often or three square meals? What we find is that there's no difference in health outcomes depending on whether you consume your three main meals or whether you consume multiple meals throughout the day.
What's actually really important is what you're consuming in those meals. And that differs for everyone. I'm a great believer in eating according to what works for you as an individual. We know that there's no one size fits all approach to not just what you eat, but also how you eat. Some people function better having multiple meals throughout the day. Some people function better only having a few meals.
My recommendation is you listen to your hunger and your fullness signals. You eat when you're hungry rather than conforming to a particular dietary pattern that you think you should be conforming to. So there you have it. It's a tie. It's been a non-debate all along. The latest research shows that on average, there really isn't a difference between eating three regular meals versus grazing throughout the day.
So in other words, it's personalised and you should do what works for you. Sarah did give one caveat. Whatever dietary pattern you're choosing, the recommendation is to try not to eat too late into the evening. This issue falls outside the scope of this short conversation, but you can hear more about this in other episodes in this series.
The episode you just heard is part of a limited series to celebrate the launch of The Big If Study, the world's biggest clinical study to discover how intermittent fasting affects our mood, energy, and hunger. To take part for free and discover if intermittent fasting can work for you, simply go to joinzoe.com slash thebigif or via the link in the show notes.
This episode was produced by Fascinate Productions with support from Yellow Hewings Martin and Alex Jones at Zoe. Zoe Daly's come out each day between now and our next regular episode.
