change the traditional concept of making three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner)

We must change the traditional concept of making three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), to include a mid-morning snack and a mid afternoon, to total five
meals. But do not confuse this with the “pecking” at all hours, which is clearly harmful.

The purpose of these five foods is that the body has the energy it needs throughout the day, avoiding reach food or dinner so hungry that we know “binging”. Also, eating more often, but fewer are facilitated digestion. Thus, as important as consuming an adequate amount of daily calories is their distribution throughout the day.
Based on the above, there are two things to avoid at all costs. First, we must never skip meals, especially breakfast. Some people, thinking only of the total calorie intake, promote their online think if they skip breakfast. Big mistake. Not only those calories are ingested, and perhaps more than, at the time of the meal, but the body feels and reacts accordingly shortage by lowering metabolism and using less energy. The end result is a greater tendency to gain weight.

The second thing to avoid is the “snacks” between meals, which sometimes becomes incessant. Its effect is perverse for several reasons. First, we are fully aware that we are eating, or the amount of calories we take in, and lunch “official”, not subtract these calories from your plate, so that the total intake is higher.

In addition, the quality of what “chop” (peanuts, chips, candy, pastries …) almost always worse than what we put on the plate, both from the nutritional point of view as their ability fattening . Finally, the “pecking” is a perversion of our customs or disorder a lack of control over it ingested an “anything goes” much more difficult to control than when we sit at the table.

It therefore seems clear that the “pecking” is one of the main problems facing face the problem of obesity. Lluís Serra, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, indicates that the number of people claiming to be regulars to “snacking” has grown from 8 to 35% in the last 10 years. This expert says that this is not desirable, nor is the fact that the biggest meal midday has passed the dinner.

The ideal distribution of calories, as Lluís Serra, would be 25% at breakfast, 35% at lunch and between 25 and 30% at dinner. The rest (10-15%) would be for meals mid morning and mid afternoon. Preferably, fruits, vegetables, yogurt or juice, and avoiding possible sweet, salty or greasy. The “pecking” must be zero or, at best, casual, insists Serra.

In view of the above, it should stay clear the importance of not only the amount eaten, but proper distribution throughout the day. Permanently get is critical to fight obesity, not specific actions such as deleting a meal, or go for a week on a crash diet or other erroneous behavior dictated by ignorance. The key is to change habits and change them permanently.