Nutritionists and physiologists recommend doing a break in food on average 4-5 hours, the maximum break that occurs at night should not exceed 11-12 hours. During this period, food should be digested in the stomach and empty the small intestine.

Eating is needed to replenish energy and nutrients necessary for the normal functioning of the body. After mechanical grinding of food in the oral cavity during chewing, chemical processing of chyme occurs. It starts in the stomach and continues in the small intestine. At the same time, complex chemical compounds (carbohydrates, fats, proteins) under the action of acids and enzymes are broken down into simple ones that are available for absorption.

During the time between meals, the pancreas and liver, synthesizing the secret to facilitate digestion, must have time to prepare for the next meal. This takes at least two hours. Thus, constant snacking every half an hour is useless. Incoming food will not be processed properly.

After the formed lump of chyme has passed the cavity of the stomach and small intestine, a wave of peristaltic complexes is launched. They are necessary to clear the lumen of residues "adhered" to the walls and accelerate their progress. Before the main volume of what is eaten has passed, “cleaning” will not begin and the remains will create wall stagnation, which complicates absorption and creates a substrate for fermentation and decay.

Thus, it is necessary to maintain a break between doses for adequate cleaning of the intestinal tube in its upper sections.

Is a long break between meals harmful?

A long break between meals is just as harmful as too short. This is due to the work of the digestive glands: the liver and pancreas. During the time between meals, they synthesize the secret. When meals are regular, the intervals between them are equal, a conditioned reflex is formed. The required amount of gastric and intestinal juice is prepared at the same time before each snack.

With the lengthening of the interval between meals, the secret stagnates in the ducts, creating conditions for the development of inflammatory processes and increasing the risk of pancreatitis, cholangitis and cholecystitis.

In addition, with a long break, the feeling of hunger increases. This encourages overeating. Even with prolonged fasting, a stressful situation is created, and with the next intake of food, the body begins to stock up on energy compounds, filling fat cells. This leads to weight gain.

What are the benefits of fractional nutrition

Fractional nutrition consists in regular meals every 4-5 hours. This contributes to the formation of conditioned reflexes for the production of digestive juices. In this case, the intestines have time to clean the walls after the previous meal.

This time between snacks also reduces the feeling of hunger and allows you to reduce portions. Thus, nutrition will not only prevent the development of pancreatitis and cholecystitis, but also lose weight.

How much food is digested?

Each product is digested for a different period of time. It has to do with the chemical structure of the food. So, proteins and fats take longer to break down, their digestion is energy-intensive. Simple sugars begin to be absorbed already in the oral cavity, as they are the main source of energy. Coarse vegetable fibers and fiber generally pass through the intestinal tube in transit and are necessary for adequate peristalsis and maintenance of microflora.

indigestible

Easily digestible

meat and meat products - more than 4 hours; fatty fish (sturgeon, salmon, mackerel, horse mackerel, and so on) - more than 3.5 hours; animal fats (salted, smoked, baked and other types of fat, melted fat, etc.) - 4 hours; vegetable fats (sunflower, olive, linseed and other oils) - 3.3-3.5 hours; mayonnaise - the higher the percentage of fat content, the longer the digestion, from 3 to 3.5 hours; butter - an average of 3.2 hours, also depends on fat content; cheeses - 3.3-4 hours; nuts - more than 3 hours; vegetables containing coarse fiber (cabbage, eggplant, sweet peppers and others) - more than 3 hours; confectionery (cakes, buns, pies and so on) - 3.5-4 hours.

fresh vegetables with a high moisture content (cucumbers, zucchini, leeks, tomatoes, and so on) - up to 2.5 hours; fruits - 2-2.5 hours; juices - 1 hour; citrus fruits - 1-1.5 hours; berries - up to 2.5 hours; jam - up to 2 hours; mushrooms - an average of 2.3 hours; legumes - up to 3 hours; cereals (the most rapidly digestible semolina, hercules, wheat) - up to 3 hours; stale bread and crackers - up to 2.3 hours; honey - 1.2 hours; marmalade, caramel, sweets, chocolate - 1.5-2.5 hours; milk - 2 hours; fermented milk products (the lower the fat content, the faster) - an average of 1.5 hours; alcohol - from 1 hour to 1.3.

Content

By all accounts, a healthy diet is one that contains no fat at all, is low-calorie and tasteless food. In reality, things are a little different, and even healthy food can be very tasty. How to draw up a schedule and regimen, what are the principles of a balanced diet?

Healthy eating rules

Organizing a proper diet is very important. Scientists have proven that adults who use quality products for cooking live longer and get sick much less often than others. If you are seriously concerned about the state of your health or the diet of loved ones, then first learn the basic rules of nutrition:

• Be sure to include protein in every meal. However, this does not mean that you should eat only meat and fish all day long. Dairy products, legumes, or eggs are also great sources of protein.
• Make a regime and the correct daily routine. Try to eat strictly at certain hours and do not skip lunch or dinner.
• Try to eat as little fat as possible. If cooking in oil, then use products with no more than 10% fat. This rule does not apply to the so-called healthy fats, which are part of avocados, nuts, seafood.
• Eat whole grain cereals. They will have to be boiled a little longer, but they have more vitamins.
• Drink mineral water. There is no need to make special calculations, just replace your regular drinks during the day with a glass of drinking water.

List of products for proper nutrition

In addition to following the basic rules of nutrition and regimen, you will have to learn about the correct ratio of products, as well as learn how to combine them. Conventionally, all food is divided into three types. This:

• protein;
• neutral;
• starchy.

Each category is absorbed by the body in different ways: some products require more energy for processing, while others almost immediately enter the intestines from the stomach. In order not to give the body an extra load, the exact compatibility of products for proper nutrition is very important. The following table will help you combine the ingredients. In one meal, you need to eat foods from the first and second columns or from the second and third columns:

Protein food	Neutral food	Starchy foods
	Nuts and seeds	Corn
	Cream and butter
	Vegetable oils
Seafood	Vegetables and mushrooms (carrots, beets, celery, legumes, cabbage, etc.)
Dairy products
Sour fruits (oranges, lemons, strawberries, cherries, apples, others)		Sweet fruits (bananas, pear, Jerusalem artichoke, raisins)
Sauces and dressings for dishes based on vegetable oils, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, mayonnaise
		Tomato juice
		Salad dressings: sour cream, cream.

How to cook the right foods

To preserve all the nutrients in vegetables, it is better to fry or stew them at a temperature not exceeding 60 degrees. Steaming, baking or frying at 100 degrees will help maintain the nutritional value of meat, poultry and fish. At the same time, the process of baking a kilogram of beef tenderloin is long - from 60 minutes to two hours. Marinades help shorten this time. High-temperature cooking with proper nutrition is unacceptable, and fried foods can be eaten extremely rarely.

Proper nutrition mode

Even a dieting adult should follow a reasonable diet:

1. Ideally, food should enter the body every four hours, but if this does not happen, digestive disorders begin, eventually leading to more serious problems.
2. The correct mode of eating is five times a day: three main meals and snacks.
3. The diet must contain fats, proteins, carbohydrates and fiber.
4. Every day you need to drink water in the amount of 40 ml per kilogram of weight.

Diet plan for weight loss

The basic rule for those who want to lose weight is that the diet should be balanced. The total calorie content of meals per day for losing weight is 1700 kilocalories. It is advisable to eat three times a day:

• Eat half an hour after you wake up. At breakfast, the body should receive about 25% of the daily calories, so the food should be dense: cereals, muesli, cheese, eggs, dairy products and fiber.
• For lunch, calories should be in the amount of 50%. The plate needs to be filled a quarter with protein food (meat or fish), the same amount with a side dish of carbohydrates (rice, buckwheat or potatoes), and half with fiber (cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes).
• For dinner, determine 25% of calories. A good option is seafood with vegetables, cottage cheese, lean fish dishes. Do not eat carbohydrates at night: while you sleep, they will turn into fat.
• The right diet for weight loss can not do without snacks. The first time you can eat a light snack 2 hours after breakfast, the second - after dinner. Any snack should be within 100 kcal.

Meal time with proper nutrition

After you have mastered all the rules and purchased the necessary products, you will need to draw up a schedule where to schedule proper nutrition by the hour:

1. Remember that healthy carbohydrates will enter the intestines after 4-6 hours. Therefore, it is better to eat dishes such as cereals, pasta and bread for breakfast in order not to feel hungry for a longer time. Be sure to make your right breakfast tastier, add fruits, berries, honey to ordinary cereals.
2. It is desirable to have lunch at about 12 o'clock, while the diet should include all types of products: proteins, fats, carbohydrates. In the middle of the day, be sure to eat the first course and a small lean side dish. Give up fast food from packages, crackers, chips and fast food.
3. It is better to have dinner at about 5-6 pm with protein foods. It will be digested in the stomach in just 2-3 hours, so it will not disturb your sleep. Cook lean fish or meat, eat a piece of chicken or a cup of cottage cheese.

Intervals between meals

Snacking is an important part of a healthy diet and routine. A light lunch will feed you at the stage of slightly noticeable hunger, and at lunch or dinner you will not exceed the norm. For good health, the interval between meals should be 2-3 hours, and when a person takes long breaks in eating, his blood sugar level drops and his health worsens. To prevent this from happening, nutritionists advise snacking. There are several options for healthy nutrition:

• eat one or two fruits or a glass of berries in the morning;
• after dinner, you can have a snack with a plate of salad or a glass of smoothie;
• a quarter cup of seeds or 20 grams of nuts will satisfy hunger in the interval between breakfast-lunch or lunch-dinner;
• half a pack of cottage cheese, a glass of milk or kefir will be an excellent afternoon snack or snack after dinner.

Daily nutrition schedule

Even if you stick to four meals a day, resorting to a rational distribution of calories is worth it. If you correctly draw up a nutrition schedule, the stomach will not be overly overloaded, and the body will gradually get used to such a routine. Violating the regime is strictly prohibited even when losing weight. Even if you do not have time to have lunch, you should not eat a double portion for dinner: it is better to have a hearty breakfast.

An approximate daily routine should look something like this:

• 8.00 - 9.00 - breakfast. You should try to eat more carbohydrates and less protein foods.
• 12.00-14.00 - lunch. Here, on the contrary, it is worth protecting yourself from carbohydrates and paying attention to nutritious dishes: cream soups, vegetable broths, stews, poultry.
• 16.00 -17.00 - afternoon snack. Do without fatty foods, flour or sweet confectionery.
• 19.00 - dinner. The menu will be appropriate low-fat fish, stewed vegetables, dairy products.

Approximate nutrition menu

If you follow the right diet and a clear schedule, you can bring your body into excellent physical shape in a few weeks. It is important not only to eat healthy food, but also to exercise and be sure to sleep 7-8 hours a day. Beginners can make a proper nutrition menu for the day, and make small adjustments to it the next day. An example plan should be:

• Have a hearty breakfast in the morning. Eat milk porridge, muesli with yogurt, a piece of tofu with an egg, or some lean fish.
• After two hours, have a snack at work: drink a glass of milk or make a smoothie.
• At noon, indulge in seafood soup, beef and rice.
• For lunch, dried fruits, nuts, a bun.
• In the evening, give preference to chicken with vegetable salad, you can drink a glass of red wine.

Throughout human evolution, the diet of our species has not been regular. As in the case of the animals around us, the frequency of feeding depended on the availability of food. And it was often necessary to extract it in the literal sense of the word “blood and sweat”.

In the context of evolution, frequent eating is a very recent innovation, and is most likely due to unprecedented access to food 24/7 in our history.

Eating is always easy - attractive, constant food is addictive. Eating less often or not eating at all for some time is tantamount to torment, deprivation and severe stress for many.

In the meantime, recent scientific research suggests that over the long term, the practice of snacking and short intervals between meals can lead to negative health consequences.

How does the body react to small meals?

It's all about, as is often the case, our hormonal response to food. Every time you and I put something in our mouths, often without thinking about it, a whole cascade of reactions takes place in the body at the cellular level.

We must digest all the food that has come in, assimilate it, get rid of the remnants, and then do something with the energy received. Let's take a closer look at the last step.

The hormone insulin plays an important role in the distribution of energy received in our body. It is produced in response to almost every meal. Not only sugar, but also protein. We get the minimum insulin response for eating fat.

Insulin is an important hormone for health, but, as with everything, balance is very important with it. With frequent meals and the insulin response that accompanies it, the constant presence of insulin and its "imposition" of energy on the cells leads to the fact that they (the cells) develop a protective reaction.

Cells become less sensitive to insulin. The further, the more, which leads to the development of insulin resistance. This condition underlies such chronic diseases as metabolic syndrome, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and so on.

This is not an instantaneous process and is not universal in its impact on health. Its (insulin resistance) development and manifestation of symptoms depends on factors such as genetics, health status, physical activity, sleep, stress level.

What changes when we eat less often?

Increased cell sensitivity to insulin. The cells have time to spend the received energy and they do not have to defend themselves against its action. Due to a more effective action, the level of insulin decreases, and with it, among other things, excess weight disappears.

Adaptation to use fat for energy. Lowering insulin levels “opens the way” for us to burn fat, while the vast majority of people these days default to burning sugar. Meanwhile, our physiology is adapted to burning fat, at least not worse than burning sugar. Fat as a source of energy also has a number of health benefits. It is a cleaner fuel, burning with less oxidative stress and the inflammatory processes that underlie aging and chronic disease.

Strengthening/restoring the immune system. Digestion of food is inevitably accompanied by inflammatory processes and oxidative stress. That is why during acute illnesses, like colds, appetite is temporarily suppressed. During fasting, the synthesis of inflammatory signaling molecules is suppressed, the immune system has the opportunity to “calm down” and recover.

Recovery from chronic diseases. Therapeutic starvation is now actively used for therapeutic purposes to recover from a number of chronic diseases that are “incurable” in the opinion of modern medicine, such as autoimmune (colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease), type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. One of the most unique and powerful mechanisms through which recovery occurs is autophagy. For describing this effect of starvation, the Japanese received the Nobel Prize in Physiology.

How to start eating less?

There's a reason many of us find it so difficult to skip meals. The release is accompanied by such unpleasant symptoms as headache, dizziness, irritability, mood swings.

All these are indirect signs of dysregulation of blood sugar - its sharp drops. This is also a sign that your body has forgotten how to burn fat for energy and requires another serving of sugar.

By sugar, I mean not only something that tastes sweet, but also flour, cereals, legumes, root vegetables. Sometimes you have to limit all of the above products for a while in order to restore the body's ability to deal with them.

A transitional diet that will allow you to endure long periods without food without discomfort is based on plenty of vegetables, greens, pure animal sources of protein (as sugar free), healthy fats from wild fish, eggs, grass-fed meat, nuts, seeds, in a small amount of berries and fruits.

This is a process of varying duration, which for many people can be quite painful.

But upon its completion, it is able to provide many useful and pleasant bonuses, including clarity of thought, improved memory and concentration, weight loss, improvement in many chronic diseases.

Another valuable gift you will receive is freedom. Freedom from food, from the fact that every 3-4 hours you need to take / cook something somewhere. You are free to eat or not eat, depending on the circumstances and your mood.

You no longer have to run to the first eatery or kiosk with pies in an unfamiliar place, “stepping on your throat” is lunch on the plane.

And this happens without negative feelings - the body automatically switches to burning fat. You remain joyful, full of energy and strength!

What are the optimal intervals between meals?

An indicative interval for healthy carbohydrate metabolism, that is, healthy regulation of blood sugar levels, is the 6-hour interval between meals. If you can easily withstand it, then your body is adapted to burning fat, does not depend on sugar, it has time in the form of these gaps to recover.

The practice of intermittent fasting, a long interval between meals, has recently gained great popularity and success as a therapeutic tool.

There are many variations of intermittent fasting. This practice can be adapted to your personal preferences, schedule and tasks. Experiment to see what works for you.

Common Intermittent Fasting Intervals:

The 12-hour fast described above is from dinner to breakfast. You finish dinner at 19 and start breakfast at 7.

The 4pm, "brunch fast" - you finish dinner at 7pm and then don't eat your next meal until 11am - the time that brunch is served in English-speaking countries.

An 8-hour eating window – that is, you eat during the day, for 8 hours – usually means 2 meals a day. On a regular basis suitable for trained people.

How to get out of fasting

With the intervals described above, which do not exceed one and a half days, you will not need to do anything special to return to food.

Maybe start with something easy to digest, like stock, egg yolk, cooked vegetables. It is important that it is not sugar in any form - to avoid blood sugar spikes and dysregulation after you have spent the effort to restore it.

Give yourself 15-30 minutes after something light and then eat a full meal. A full meal after a period of fasting is a signal to the body that everything is in order and it should not perceive the situation as stressful.

Therefore, eat until you are full, however, try to do it measuredly and consciously so that you don’t miss its (satiation) signs!

Be healthy!

May 02, 2017 // from https://website/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/empty-plate.jpg 545 903 Julia Bogdanova /i/logo.pngJulia Bogdanova 2017-05-02 18:30:23 2019-07-09 13:00:49 Optimal meal frequency: how many times a day to eat to stay healthy

For those who want to lose weight, fractional nutrition is attractive, primarily because it does not impose the traditional prohibitions of strict diets. In addition, such a power supply system does not require special training ...

The main feature of fractional nutrition is that food should not be taken according to the usual pattern - breakfast, lunch, dinner - but much more often and in small portions. Thus, the time between meals remains not long enough to have time to become very hungry, and when there is no strong hunger, there is no "brutal" appetite, forcing us to overeat or lean on more dense and high-calorie foods. As a result, on a fractional diet, a person involuntarily begins to consume fewer calories, and, consequently, loses weight. In this article, we will introduce you to the basic rules of fractional nutrition that will help you move on to a new "gastronomic" regimen without harming your stomach and mood. So…

1. You need to eat 5-6 times a day. At the same time, food portions should be small. It has been proven that if you constantly feed the body, then you can “inspire” the system of regulation of fat metabolism that there is always food, and the body will stop making strategic reserves. The absorption of nutrients is accelerated, and much less is deposited at the waist.

2. Interval between meals. The largest should not exceed 4 hours. The minimum interval must be at least 2.5 hours. If the feeling of hunger appears earlier than the prescribed interval of 2.5 hours, then the previous meal was not nutritious enough - in this case, it is necessary to reconsider its quantity and energy value.

3. Eat at the same time. This will help the body digest food as efficiently as possible.

4. Properly distribute daily calories. If you eat six times a day, breakfast and dinner should have 25% of calories each, lunch - 35%, 5% - for 3 snacks. If there are five meals a day, each time the daily calorie content should be 20%.

5. Drink water. With fractional meals per day, you must consume at least 1.5-2 liters of water.

6. Do not mix water with food. Water should be drunk either before meals or after. The interval between eating and drinking should be from half an hour to an hour.

7. Preference must be given healthy food: whole grain bread, dairy products, cereals, fruits, vegetables, fresh meat and fish. Avoid semi-finished products and sausages.

8. Volume of food. The energy value of the diet should remain at the level of the daily requirement. The portion should not exceed the size of the palm or the volume - a glass.

9. Hot breakfast. It is better to start the day with him. Also don't forget about hot food for lunch and dinner. Between meals, you can have a snack 2-3 times. What is important: morning meals should contain the maximum amount of carbohydrates from the daily allowance. And in the afternoon and in the evening you should try to eat foods containing proteins and fiber.

10. Snacks. Ideal snack foods: grain bread or crispbread, vegetable and fruit salads, just a snack of vegetables and fruits, low-fat cottage cheese, natural sugar-free yogurt, sugar-free cereals and muesli. Chips, chocolates, seeds, nuts for snacking are not suitable - they have too much fat.

Proper nutrition. Menu for the week:

breakfast	Hercules, omelet, bread	Vegetable salad, buckwheat	Brown rice, baked fish	Vinaigrette, tuna, bread	Hercules, omelette	Vegetable salad, chicken breast, bread	Menu for any day of the week to choose from
snack	apple, yogurt	cottage cheese, banana	yogurt, pear	cottage cheese, banana	apple, yogurt	cottage cheese, 5 almonds
dinner	Vegetable salad, chicken breast, bread	Vegetable salad, chicken ham, buckwheat	Steamed vegetables, baked fish, brown rice	Vinaigrette, tuna, bread	Vegetable salad, chicken, buckwheat	Omelet, vegetable salad, bread
snack	cottage cheese	cottage cheese, 5-7 almonds	yogurt	cottage cheese 1/2 grapefruit	cottage cheese	cottage cheese 1/2 grapefruit
dinner	Vegetable salad, chicken breast	Vegetable salad, chicken ham	Stewed vegetables, baked fish	Vinaigrette, tuna	Vegetable salad, chicken	Vegetable salad, baked fish
snack	Cottage cheese	Cottage cheese	Kefir	Cottage cheese	Yogurt	Kefir

Modern people are forced to constantly think about worldly problems many of them do not have enough time to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, taking medications is considered the fastest way to treat them, which makes it possible to improve their well-being and not be distracted from everyday worries. You can’t be so careless about your health, and even more so take all the drugs that are advertised as the most effective, without a doctor’s prescription and in large quantities in order to get an immediate result.

Each person carries responsibility for your health. For the successful treatment of any disease, do not take medicines, following only the instructions attached to the drug. Be sure to consult with your doctor and check with him the dose. If the doses indicated in the instructions and those prescribed by the doctor differ significantly, then check again with the attending physician for the correctness of his appointment. For the successful treatment of the disease, you should trust the doctors and not self-medicate, perhaps the doctor has good reason to prescribe the wrong dose for you, which is indicated in the instructions. It is possible to check the dose of the drug against an independent source of information, for example, in the Vidal, Mashkovsky, Compendium or Trinus drug reference book, which today can be easily found on various sites.