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(IANS)
Hustle culture has romanticised skipping meals when you’re rushing to work in the morning or trying to squeeze in some extra work during your breaks. But contrary to what social media and pop culture try to portray, going without even one of the standard three meals a day is simply not okay!
Now, we realise we sound like your mother, repetitively reminding you to eat on time. But like her, we have your best interests at heart. And we also have the science to prove it to you.
A study conducted on about 24,000 adults over the age of 40 recently found that having only one meal a day could be linked to a higher mortality risk in general.
Further, the morning breakfast you’ve been replacing with coffee (*insert disapproving tch*) is also harming your health. Skipping breakfast has been associated with a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD), while skipping lunch or dinner has been linked to a greater risk of all-cause mortality, including a rise in CVD risk.
Before you think you’re safe since you find a way to fit in three meals a day, ask yourself if you’re eating those meals on time. Because eating all three meals without timing them apart is also a problem, and eating two adjacent meals within 4.5 hours of each other has been shown to increase all-cause death risk.
“Our research revealed that individuals eating only one meal a day are more likely to die than those who had more daily meals,” said epidemiologist Yangbo Sun from the University of Tennessee.
So you’re probably doing your body no favours by skipping meals.
“Based on these findings, we recommend eating at least two to three meals spread throughout the day,” Yangbo added.
Meanwhile, meal-skipping was found to be more prevalent in those who smoked more, drank more alcohol, were more food insecure, ate less nutritious food, had more snacks, and took in less energy overall.
Therefore, there isn’t enough data to suggest that it’s just the meal skipping that’s causing early death.
Nevertheless, this research significantly contributes to the much-needed evidence regarding the association between eating behaviours and mortality in the context of meal timing and duration of the daily meal period.
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