Fitness On The Go By Molly: How Often Should You Eat Throughout The Day?

Friday, December 14, 2018

How Often Should You Eat Throughout The Day?

How often should you eat throughout the day is a very popular question, what’s the answer?

Eating is one of life’s simplest joys. Answering the question of how often should you eat throughout the day may disappoint some people who think eating is for pleasuring their tongue. The majority of people have forgotten that the purpose of eating is to fuel the body.

Eating nourishes the body, the mind, and even the spirit. It brings people together. It is a universal activity that people—regardless of gender, age, race, social class or political beliefs—can easily agree on. After all, everyone loves a good meal.

But like all good things, eating too much or too often can have dire consequences. In a new video, An Oasis of Healing founder and integrative oncology expert Dr. Thomas Lodi explains what happens to the body if we eat more often than necessary.

“You shouldn’t eat until what you ate already came out,” he said. “If I eat something and then I eat something else, now I’ve got my colon working, my stomach working—all day every day. What happens if I do that with my muscles? I get wiped out. I get tired. Our gastrointestinal system is overworked and sick.”

Dr. Lodi also points out that most of the cooked food items we eat no longer have enzymes, thus requiring the pancreas to work harder to produce them. Enzymes are “biological molecules” that expedite the rate of almost all the chemical reactions in the cells. They aid in digestion and metabolism and help break down large molecules so the body can absorb it better.

Enzymes “deactivate” when exposed to high temperatures but this does not mean that cooked food should be completely taken out from a regular diet. The human body “absorbs and re-secretes enzymes” to avoid enzyme deficiency.

Raw vs. Cooked Food

Eating some cooked food if you are in good health is okay in moderation if you feel you just have to have it. Raw food should be the majority of your diet which includes green juicing. A cook is a chemist as we know that when food is cooked, the chemistry is altered and changed and that is not a good thing for our health.

Eating vegetables raw to maximizes their nutritional value. For example, cooking cabbage destroys myrosinase, an enzyme that helps prevent cancer, so it is best to eat it fresh and raw. Raw onion is beneficial in preventing cardiovascular diseases while raw garlic has sulfur compounds that have known anti-cancer properties.

So, back to the question: How often should you eat throughout the day?

There are no hard and fast rules on meal frequency. As Dr. Lodi notes, he has met senior Buddhist monks who eat only one meal a day and their bodies are well-adjusted to it.

The idea that eating smaller but more frequent meals throughout the day is ‘healthier’ has been disproved by studies which found that eating many smaller meals does not have a significant effect on fat loss or metabolic rate. At the end of the day, the total amount and quality of food you consume determines the amount of energy used during digestion.

Following Dr. Lodi’s above-mentioned advice, here’s a simple technique: Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Once you have gone through a detoxification protocol you will lose the cravings that keep you eating throughout the day. Now, eating once a day becomes that much easier to do.

Eating just one meal a day allows your body to naturally cleanse itself internally and puts you in control of your health. Got more questions? You can always book a consultation with Dr. Lodi.