How Many Meals Should You Eat Daily?

Eating frequency seems to be an American preoccupation. Neither the Food Standards Guide of the United Kingdom, Health Canada nor The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating mention eating frequency. They focus instead on what and how much one should eat for optimal nutrition.
Eating three balanced meals daily was a decades-old standard in the United States. We began moving away from that paradigm in the 1980s in favor of three smaller meals and one to three snacks daily. While that pattern remains the standard, some recent studies produced results indicating that a return to "three squares" may be warranted. Let us explore what the experts have to say.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Revising and publishing updated guidelines happens every five years for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The 2005 Guidelines are currently in effect, with updates underway for 2010. The dietary guidelines of the USDA have also been adopted by The Department of Health and Human Services.
Build your personalized nutrition plan based on USDA guidelines. Its website features a tool, My Pyramid Tracker, allowing individuals to establish a customized food plan and track progress daily.
The current recommendation of the ADA is to divide each day's food allotment into three meals and two snacks.

American Dietetic Association

Determining recommended nutritional guidelines is a highly scientific process for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). Their rigorous research guidelines are known as the Evidence Analysis Process (EAL). ADA recommendations may be "conditional" or "imperative," depending on the conclusiveness of empirical research.
When research results are conclusive, the ADA makes an "imperative recommendation." When the research is flawed or the results are inconclusive, dietitians are called upon to make clinical judgments. In the case of eating frequency, the consensus among dietitians, and therefore the "conditional recommendation" of the ADA, is that each day's food allotment should be divided into four to five meals or snacks.

The New England Journal of Medicine

Imagine eating 17 snacks daily in 60-minute intervals. Now imagine eating exactly the same food, but broken into three meals daily with no snacking. The New England Journal of Medicine published such a study, conducted by The Massachusetts Medical Society. Blood tests revealed lower levels of cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein and insulin in the group with the high-frequency meal plan than in the group eating three times daily. Though researchers are encouraged that such "grazing" may yield health benefits, they are not prepared to recommend such a high-frequency meal plan to the general public.

During Pregnancy

Carrying a baby to full term may be linked to the frequency of the mother's meals. Johns Hopkins University conducted a study of more than 2,000 pregnant women. One group ate three times daily without snacking, while the other group ate smaller meals five times daily. Mothers with the higher frequency meal plan were more likely to carry their babies to full term. Mothers on the higher frequency meal plan also gained less weight during pregnancy. The results were published in The American Journal of Epidemiology.

Insulin Sensitivity

The Mayo Clinic estimates that 54 million Americans have insulin sensitivity, also know as pre-diabetes. With early management of nutrition and physical activity, those people may never develop diabetes. Without intervention, they are at risk to develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years.
According to Megan Porter, RD/LD, writing for The Diet Channel, the worst thing an insulin-sensitive person can do is skip meals or go more than five hours without eating. She recommends eating four to five times daily, being careful not to increase overall food intake.

Sampling of Respected Diets

Weight Watchers is known for two things: a longstanding history of weight-loss success and flexibility. Their plan is highly adaptable, both in the frequency of meals and the broad variety of foods available.
The Zone Diet, developed by Dr. Barry Sears, recommends three meals and two snacks daily. The hallmark of this diet is its combination of nutrients. Dr. Sears recommends that 40 percent of calories for each meal or snack be allotted to carbohydrates, 30 percent to healthy fats, and 30 percent to lean sources of protein.
The Real Age Diet, outlined in the book, "You on a Diet," and developed by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen, recommends three meals and one to three snacks daily. They offer meal planning software and focus strongly on physical activity and and inches over pounds.
The Spectrum Diet, developed by Dr. Dean Ornish, divides foods into five groups based on their overall health properties. For optimal health one would choose foods primarily from the first two groups. Individuals have the flexibility, however, to choose foods from all groups, based on individual goals and priorities. Eating frequency is determined by the individual.

Other Views

Karen Struthers, an Australian dietitian, conducted a study on 179 obese people to determine whether there was any advantage to breaking their daily food allotment into more than three meals per day. She found no advantage in insulin levels, body analysis, weight or waist measure. The details of the study were not clearly detailed, however.
A study by the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics from Harokopio University in Greece examined the effects of meal frequency on 50 post-menopausal and 65 pre-menopausal women. The results showed that higher frequency meals yielded increased weight loss in pre-menopausal women, but found no advantage in post-menopausal women.
A study of 10 women, conducted by the American Institute for Cancer Research, showed that increased meal frequency led to higher calorie consumption. The women who ate three times per day consumed 80 fewer calories per day than the women with a higher meal frequency. Another finding was that while increased meal frequency increased metabolism initially, that increase faded after two weeks.

Resources

• My Pyramid Tracker
• Real Age Menu Planner