For many people, their diet is regulated by appetite. What is appetite and how to treat it?

Hunger

Everyone is familiar with the feeling of hunger, which signals that for the human body to function properly, it is important to receive a new portion of food that carries energy, plastic substances, vitamins and minerals spent in metabolic processes. The physiological and biochemical essence of this feeling is as follows. It is assumed that in the cerebral cortex there is a so-called food center, which is excited by various impulses: a decrease in the concentration of glucose (sugar) in the blood, emptying of the stomach, etc. Excitation of the food center creates appetite, the degree of which depends on the degree of excitation of the food center. However, as a result of the inertia of excitation of the food center, appetite persists for some time after eating. This is due to the fact that digestion and absorption of the first portions of food lasts 15–20 minutes. After they begin to enter the blood, the food center gives a “lights out”.

The feeling of hunger is characteristic not only of man, but of everything living on earth; there is no doubt that man inherited it from his wild ancestors. Since the latter could not always count on luck in finding food, certain advantages in the struggle for existence were given to those of them who, having found food, consumed it in large quantities, that is, those who had an increased appetite. Increased appetite apparently arose during the evolution of the animal world, became established in the offspring and was inherited by humans.

Currently, in developed (we repeat - in developed) countries, the problem of human nutrition has lost its former severity, and in connection with this, increased appetite has also lost its biological meaning. Moreover, he has become a kind of enemy of man, the culprit of systematic or unsystematic cases of overeating and even gluttony. And this means that you should not be guided by appetite alone, although you cannot ignore it either. Indeed, our appetite signals us not only about the need for the required amount of food (it signals this incorrectly), but also about its quality.

We all know the feeling when, after a long absence from the diet of any product, suddenly there is a strong desire to eat it. This fact is explained to a certain extent by the fact that this particular product contains a significant amount of one or another essential component, which is lacking in other products, as a result of which our body begins to feel the need for this product. In this case, the appetite gives exactly the right signal, and we, of course, must follow it.

Appetite

The question often arises: how to suppress appetite? Shown, that fractional meals(5-6 times a day) suppresses the excitation of the food center. In this case, sometimes one apple or a glass of kefir is enough. In order not to whet your appetite, you should not eat spicy or salty foods and you should completely avoid alcoholic beverages. Alcohol not only poisons the body, but also has a strong, appetite-stimulating effect.

So, increased appetite can be harmful to health, but its complete absence is also undesirable. This often affects young children, whom loving mothers and compassionate grandmothers endlessly stuff with something “tasty.” As a result, the child loses his appetite, and frightened parents, instead of coming to their senses, try to feed him continuously.

Eating with appetite is always a pleasure. It takes time for appetite to develop. Eating breaks are absolutely necessary. In childhood they should be shorter than in adulthood.

What should these breaks be? How much and what should you eat during a particular meal? In other words, what should be the diet of an adult healthy person?

The diet is based on four basic principles.

Regularity of nutrition

The first principle of proper nutrition is regularity of nutrition, i.e. eating at the same time of day. Each meal is accompanied by a certain reaction of the body. Saliva, gastric juice, bile, pancreatic juice, etc. are secreted, and all this happens at the right time. In the process of digestion, conditioned reflex reactions play an important role, such as the secretion of saliva and gastric juice in response to the smell and sight of food, etc. In the chain of conditioned reflex reactions, the time factor plays an important role, i.e., a person’s developed habit of consuming food at a certain time of day. The development of a constant stereotype in the diet is of great importance for the conditioned reflex preparation of the body for receiving and digesting food.

Divided meals during the day

The second principle of proper nutrition is fractional nutrition during the day. One or two meals a day are impractical and dangerous to health. Studies have shown that with two meals a day, myocardial infarction and acute pancreatitis occur much more often than with three and four meals a day, and this is explained precisely by the abundance of food consumed at one time with two meals a day (and even more so with one meal).

A practically healthy person is recommended to have three or four meals a day, namely: breakfast, lunch, dinner and a glass of kefir before bed. When conditions permit, you can introduce one or two additional meals into your diet: between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. Naturally, additional meals do not at all imply an increase in the total amount of food consumed per day.

Rational range of products

Physiological distribution of food quantity according to its intake. What should be the breaks between meals?

The fourth principle of proper nutrition It is the most physiological distribution of food quantity according to its intake during the day. Numerous observations confirm that the most beneficial regimen for a person is one in which he receives more than two-thirds of the total calories of the daily diet at breakfast and lunch, and less than one-third at dinner.

The time of day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, naturally, can vary within fairly wide limits depending on a person’s production activity. However, it is important that the time between breakfast and lunch was 5–6 hours And the time between lunch and dinner was also 5–6 hours. Based on the research, it should be recommended that 3-4 hours pass between dinner and the start of bed.

A proper diet is especially important for a normally developing child's body. It is recommended to feed newborn babies with a 3-3.5 hour break between meals.

Changes in diet

Diet should not be viewed as a dogma. Changing living conditions can make adjustments to it. Moreover, some dietary changes need to be made from time to time specifically for the purpose of specific training of the digestive system. In this case, as with other processes of enhancing adaptation capabilities, it is necessary to remember that changes in the diet should not be too sudden, i.e. they can represent physiologically permissible fluctuations without being gross violations of the diet.

However, violations are very often observed, and sometimes serious ones.

Dietary disorders

The most common violation is the following pattern of eating during the day: a very weak breakfast (or almost no breakfast - only a glass of tea or coffee) in the morning before leaving for work; inadequate lunch at work, sometimes in the form of sandwiches; a very hearty dinner at home after coming home from work. Such actually two meals a day can, due to its systematic nature, cause significant harm to health. Firstly, eating a lot of food in the evening significantly increases the possibility (in other words, it is a so-called risk factor) of myocardial infarction, gastritis, peptic ulcer, and acute pancreatitis. The more food eaten, the stronger and for a longer period of time the concentration of lipids (fats) in the human blood increases, and this, in turn, as evidenced by numerous studies, is in a certain connection with the occurrence of changes in the body leading to the development of atherosclerosis . Eating too much food causes increased secretion of digestive juices: gastric and pancreatic. In some cases, this can gradually lead to disruption of the stomach, most often expressed in the form of gastritis or peptic ulcer of the stomach (or duodenum), or pancreas, which is expressed mainly in the form of pancreatitis. The scientific literature, for example, describes the phenomenon of a significant increase in the number of cases of myocardial infarction and acute pancreatitis in people celebrating Maslenitsa.

In the evening, after a day of work, a person’s energy consumption is usually small. They decrease even more during night sleep. Therefore, a large meal in the evening leads to the fact that a significant proportion of consumed carbohydrates, without undergoing complete oxidation, are converted into fats, which are stored as reserves in adipose tissue. Thus, eating disorders, expressed in shifting the main share of the diet to the evening hours, also contribute to the emergence and development of obesity.

A relatively common violation of the diet, especially among women, is the replacement of a full lunch with a meal (or even two or three meals with a short break between them) of confectionery or flour products. Many people make do with cakes, muffins or buns instead of lunch. This is a serious violation of the correct diet, since in this case the human body, instead of a rational set of nutrients it needs, receives mainly carbohydrates, some of which, in conditions where almost no other nutrients enter the body, are converted into fats, creating the preconditions for the development of obesity . Confectionery products usually contain a large amount of easily soluble and quickly digested carbohydrates (simple sugars), which, entering the blood in the form of glucose, significantly increase the concentration of the latter in the blood within a relatively short time. This puts a lot of stress on the pancreas. Repeated stress on the pancreas can lead to disruption of its endocrine function with the subsequent occurrence of diabetes mellitus. All of the above discussions about rational nutrition relate to a practically healthy person. Nutrition of patients is a special concern of nutritionists and therefore we do not touch upon this issue.

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Fractional meals are the most important tool for burning fat.
You need to eat every three hours. This is not an absolute dogma, but the interval between meals should not be more than 4-4.5 hours.

Of course, you can eat 3 times a day and achieve certain results, but remember that 3 meals a day is a regimen tailored to the working day, which does not mean that such a schedule is ideal. Until you eat 5-6 times a day, you will not be able to spin your metabolism to maximum capacity.

As you remember, food has a thermal effect, i.e. The body spends energy to digest it. If you don't eat anything, then your body has nothing to burn except its muscles and fat. When fasting, fat will burn much slower than muscle. For more information about starvation diets and their consequences, see the articles in the chapter “low-calorie diets”, I think that the information given in it will convince you that it is better not to starve and eat often.

The best way to gain fat is to go on a low-calorie, no-carbohydrate diet or fast.
It doesn't take long for the body to adjust to a calorie deficit (4-4.5 hours between meals is enough for the body to turn on the emergency light). If skipping a meal is a “high crime,” then skipping breakfast should be punishable by “death penalty.”

Let's do the math. For example, your last meal was at 7 pm. You woke up at 7 in the morning, you have no appetite, you drank a cup of coffee, ran to work, and only at 12-13 o’clock did you get to the dining room... “and then Ostap got carried away.”
It turns out that the time interval between the last and first meals is 16 hours. During this time you will burn a large amount of muscle. In addition, if you eat like this, then your evening meal, as a rule, will be very plentiful, because the body will already throw all its strength into feeding itself and fat reserves in full, because the next day and the next and again you will torture yourself with 16 hour fasts.

Frequent meals are a strategic solution to control appetite. In which case do you think you will eat more? What if the last meal was 7 hours ago or 3 hours ago? Think back to your big dinner and think about why you eat so much? Obviously, the body simply demands its own. Remember, a strong feeling of hunger is the first signal that the body has begun to prepare for storing fat, because. hunger, especially unbearable, is the effect of hormones.

Digestion of food takes from 2 to 2.5 hours. If you eat more often, you will simply pile food on top of previously undigested food. If there were 40 hours in a day, then yes, you would need to add 2-3 meals. 5-6 times is the optimal number of meals, taking into account a 24-hour day.

Get rid of the stereotype that our grandmothers and mothers instilled in us, that we should not suppress our appetite and not eat before meals. The results of a good appetite (which, however, is not an indicator of anything good...) can be very clearly observed in nature in the spring, when people, after hibernation, expose their bellies, gained over the winter, to the sun.

In addition, during one meal, more than 500-550 Kcal in the morning, 300-350 in the afternoon and 250-200 in the evening are not absorbed (the excess goes partly into the toilet, partly into fat). You will not be able to saturate your body with the necessary nutrients in 1-2 large meals, but you will saturate your fat with quality fat cells. A higher calorie intake in the evening is only necessary if you had an intense strength training session in the evening. More on this later.

Conclusion: Eating every 3 hours is necessary in order to maintain a stable and high level of metabolism and prevent the use of muscles as fuel, and also prevent the body from going into emergency economy mode. This is especially true for those who lead an active lifestyle and is simply necessary for those who engage in serious training.

Visceral therapy, classical massage, spine treatment.

There are radically different opinions about the correct diet. Some are ardent supporters of the usual three meals a day, while others are convinced that meals should be one-time only. Others say that you should not eat after six. What is the correct diet and how should it be followed? In addition, it is also important to take into account.

Number of meals per day

Intervals between meals

If 4-6 meals a day is adopted, then it is important to correctly observe the time intervals between each meal. No more than four hours should pass between each meal. What exactly was eaten also plays an important role. For example, if the lunch was hearty and filling, then an interval of four hours would be ideal. And if there was only a light snack for lunch, then the interval until the next meal should be reduced to a maximum of two hours.

Nutritionists recommend calculating the diet in such a way that all servings have approximately the same calorie content. Then, over time, you can reach the same interval between meals - three or three and a half hours.
The intervals between meals with three meals a day should not exceed 5-6 hours.

Four meals a day assumes the following distribution of the daily ration. Breakfast should account for 25% of the total diet. For afternoon tea – 15%, for lunch – 35% and for dinner – 25%. If the diet is three times a day, then the share of breakfast should be 40%, lunch 35% and dinner 30%.

Product distribution

Breakfast

Nutritionists agree that a person can afford whatever he wants for breakfast. It is best to consume your daily fat intake in the first half of the day. If a person really loves sweets, then it is better to consume them in the morning.

Dinner

Since childhood, our parents have been telling us about the need to chew food thoroughly. But as we grow up, we stop monitoring the nutrition process, rushing about urgent matters. But well-chewed food is processed by saliva, and the process of breaking down food begins in the mouth. After all, saliva contains many enzymes that accelerate the process of digestion of foods. Large pieces that are swallowed remain in the stomach for a long time, which causes a feeling of heaviness and discomfort. Especially if you wash it down with water or tea to speed up the absorption of food. This is strictly forbidden, because water saturates pieces of food, which contributes to their rapid swallowing. Water should be taken half an hour before meals, and tea should be drunk twenty to thirty minutes after finishing the meal. It is not for nothing that doctors believe that twenty to thirty minutes of time should be allocated for one meal.

Culture of proper nutrition

Many limit themselves to a cup of coffee during breakfast, declaring a lack of appetite. Lunch at work comes down to a sandwich with tea. But for dinner, the average hungry person is ready to eat both soup and a fried cutlet or chop. And wash it down with sweet tea and sit in a chair in front of the TV. But maintaining a proper diet is incompatible with such eating behavior. The distribution of calories consumed should approximately correspond to the following ratios:

• – 30-35%;
• lunch – 25–30%;
• afternoon snack – 15%;
• dinner – 25%.

After all, it is a hearty dinner that leads to the fact that you don’t want to eat at breakfast. It is necessary to gradually reduce the calorie content and density of dinner, increasing the volume of breakfast. For breakfast you need to eat complex carbohydrates. This could be buckwheat porridge, rice, oatmeal with honey, a piece of cheese with grain bread and juice.

Proper nutrition is impossible without counting calories consumed. After all, the amount of energy required is different for children, the elderly and working adults. However, a lot depends on the type of activity. An office worker has lower energy consumption than a miner, steelmaker or loader. Therefore, their diet should have different calorie content. This does not mean that every day you need to count the calories in every bite you eat. It is enough to create a menu for the week with an approximate calorie count. Over time, this procedure will become automatic because you will remember the calorie content of the main foods in your diet.

Selection and preparation of products

Selection of a nutrition program is unthinkable without choosing foods based on the ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in them. Complex carbohydrates such as cereals, bread, potatoes are recommended for breakfast. The source of animal proteins is meat, fish, and plant proteins - legumes, nuts, soybeans, seeds. You should avoid eating fatty meats containing cholesterol.

Menu for the week

And in conclusion, let us once again draw attention to the need to give up sweet and flour products, especially store-bought ones, and to eat pies and other fast food on the run.

Different nutrition systems and programs may offer two, three, or four meals a day.

A little about healthy eating

In this case, we will look at rational nutrition, which is based on the principles of balance and calorie theory.

The word “rational” translated from Latin means science, reason, and there are also meanings such as accounting, counting, counting. Rational nutrition is a scientifically based, precisely calculated supply of food to a person, strengthening the body’s resistance to the effects of toxic substances and infections.

The principles on which rational nutrition is based:

1. The timeliness of the entry into the human body of substances that are needed to compensate. To control energy replenishment, knowledge of the level of energy expenditure and the energy value of the diet is necessary.
2. High-quality completeness of products when the body receives the main food ingredients in sufficient quantities -, etc.
3. The optimal ratio of the basic nutrients listed above.

Four times a day due to the timely receipt of vital substances into the body.

Disadvantages of two meals a day with a large interval between meals (up to 7 hours or more)

Rare meals cause an increase in blood levels, promote the accumulation of fatty deposits in the body, and reduce the active functioning of the thyroid gland and tissue enzymes.

In most cases, a person immediately eats a large amount of food, as a result, the stomach becomes full, stretches its walls, limits mobility, and, therefore, impairs the mixing of the contents and its processing by juices; the process of evacuation of food from the stomach is slow.

Stretching the organ can adversely affect the functioning of the heart. An overfilled stomach raises the diaphragm, complicating cardiac activity.

In the first hours of digestion, a large food load inhibits the functioning of the gastric glands, reduces the secretion of juice and lengthens the period of digestion. Chronic overeating leads to obesity.

In addition, eating a large amount of food can provoke a strong contraction of the muscles of the biliary tract and significant pain in this area.

In addition, due to the fact that an excess amount of blood fills the internal organs, the functional state of the brain blood becomes worse. Therefore, performance decreases, weakness and drowsiness appear.

Also, rare meals, when the breaks between them reach 8-10 hours, worsen the rhythmic activity of the intestines, leading to constipation.

Correct diet: intervals between meals

The duration of the intervals is determined by the period of time that is sufficient for the digestion, absorption and absorption of nutrients.

Long breaks in eating can provoke:

The intensity of the synthesis of digestive juices decreases significantly in the first hours after a meal, is restored by the 2nd hour, and reaches its maximum by the 4th hour. For this reason, eating earlier than two hours after the previous meal is not advisable.

During short intervals there is not enough time for the complete digestion process and absorption of nutrients before the next meal. This can cause a disorder in the motor and secretory functioning of the digestive canal.

In addition, the following factor is important. A healthy stomach is a muscular bag that can stretch and contract. However, it lacks the ability to grab food, turn it over and process juices unless it has a certain volume. Therefore, the statement “eat more often and little by little” in the absence of pathologies of the digestive tract is not true.

The most optimal intervals between meals for an adult healthy person the intervals are four to six hours. In addition, the digestive glands need rest for 6 to 10 hours per day, when the ability of the digestive organs to function normally the next day occurs.

Food temperature

In order for the digestion process to be carried out properly, the temperature of the food is important. The temperature of hot food should be no higher than 50 - 60 degrees, cold food - no lower than 10 degrees.

Regularity and eating disorders

Eating regularly at the same time is extremely important. A conditioned reflex of appetite stimulation to the time factor is formed. By a certain time, a feeling of hunger arises, which excites the food center and triggers the reflex secretion of gastric juice. Clear, organized, correct diet is most beneficial for digestion and absorption. In most cases, two to three days are a sufficient period for the body to adapt to diet. In some situations, it is difficult to strictly follow the regime; some deviations from the usual eating hours are possible - optimal - within 30 minutes.

In case of violations diet the conditioned reflex begins to fade. Food enters the stomach, which is not prepared for digestion. This affects the food center - appetite decreases and food mass is poorly absorbed. Irregular and disorderly nutrition distorts the physiological rhythms of the digestive glands, reduces digestibility and in some cases provokes the development of diseases - gastritis, cholecystitis, etc.

If the choice is made in favor of one or the other human diet, it is necessary to strictly observe it, since sudden changes in diet and food stress are not indifferent to the body.

For many people, their diet is regulated by appetite. What is appetite and how to treat it?

The question often arises: how to suppress appetite? It has been shown that fractional meals (5-6 times a day) suppresses the excitation of the food center. In this case, sometimes one apple or a glass of kefir is enough. In order not to whet your appetite, you should not eat spicy or salty foods and you should completely avoid alcoholic beverages. Alcohol not only poisons the body, but also has a strong, appetite-stimulating effect.

So, increased appetite can be harmful to health, but its complete absence is also undesirable. This often affects young children, whom loving mothers and compassionate grandmothers endlessly stuff with something “tasty.” As a result, the child loses his appetite, and frightened parents, instead of coming to their senses, try to feed him continuously.

Eating with appetite is always a pleasure. It takes time for appetite to develop. Eating breaks are absolutely necessary. In childhood they should be shorter than in adulthood.

What should these breaks be? How much and what should you eat during a particular meal? In other words, what should be the diet of an adult healthy person?

The diet is based on four basic principles.

• Regularity of nutrition
• Divided meals during the day
• Rational range of products
• Physiological distribution of the amount of food according to its intake during the day

Meal times

The main criterion that determines this time is the feeling of hunger. It can be identified by the following sign: when thinking about unattractive food (for example, the image of a piece of stale black bread), saliva appears; at such a moment, the tongue, rather than the stomach, primarily needs food.

You can confuse the feeling of hunger with the following conditions: the stomach “fails”, the stomach “sucks”, cramps occur. All this indicates the unloading of the organ after overflow, the needs of the stomach and the food appetite center (a number of brain structures that coordinate choice, food consumption and the initial stages of digestive processing).

It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of hunger and appetite when organizing a proper diet. Hunger indicates the need for energy, appetite - the need for pleasure. The surest impulse to eat should be hunger, since the deceptiveness of appetite leads to excess weight.

Number of meals

The frequency of meals or the number of meals affects the metabolism in the body. Factors to consider when determining the frequency of meals:

• age;
• labor activity (mental, physical labor);
• state of the human body;
• working day routine.

Benefits of multiple meals (four meals a day):

Approximate meal schedule

A sample meal schedule might look like this:

• 7:00 - First breakfast.
• 10:00 - Second breakfast.
• 13:00 - Lunch.
• 16:00 - Afternoon snack.
• 19:00 - Dinner.

Breakfast- the most important meal of the day. Breakfast should be rich in proteins; you can include, for example, eggs, cottage cheese or other dairy products, and turkey sausages. If you can't do without carbohydrates, include fresh fruit or some granola in your breakfast menu.

Lunch should be light and low carb. If you are not very hungry at this time, still try not to skip breakfast, but limit yourself to a glass of kefir or juice or some fruit.

Dinner should be balanced and include a source of protein (meat, fish or poultry) and some healthy carbohydrates, preferably only in the form of vegetables or grains. Some healthy fats from olive oil, nuts or avocado will also help.

Afternoon snack may include carbohydrates, preferably only in the form of some fruit, porridge or, at worst, a whole grain bun.

Dinner, like lunch, should be complete and well-balanced. After dinner, the so-called “Danger Zone” begins. Eating at this time is caused only by psychological, not physiological hunger. Only the desire to cheer yourself up can draw you to the refrigerator. If you intend to lose weight, never eat in the Danger Zone.

Biorhythm - the secret of a proper nutrition schedule

The secret to proper eating schedule is understanding how your body's internal clock is set, i.e. what are your biorhythms? Each person has his own specific pace of life, and the body’s readiness to eat is directly related to the time at which a person usually wakes up, when he begins active activity, when he rests, and, finally, when he gets ready for bed. If you are used to waking up no earlier than 11 am, you are unlikely to feel the desire to have breakfast at 11:30. However, by lunchtime your appetite will probably be quite good, and by dinner you will definitely arrive without delay. Those who like to watch the sun rise when they rise, on the contrary, have a wonderful appetite in the morning, but they may completely forget about dinner.

Start your day with protein foods. Breakfast should be rich in proteins. This will help you get a sufficient boost of energy and is guaranteed to delay the feeling of hunger until your next meal. It is believed that it is best to have breakfast no earlier than 8 a.m. and within 1 hour of waking up. If you wake up much earlier than eight in the morning, then drink a glass of water, do exercises, take a contrast shower in order to delay breakfast closer to the specified time.

Eat at the same time every 3-4 hours. This will help control your appetite. To organize such fractional meals, you can distribute over time the intake of the set of dishes that you usually eat for lunch, for example. First - salad and first course, after 3 hours have a snack with the second course. Drink more water when snacking. Water removes toxins from the body.

Lunch at lunch is an important point in the meal schedule. It is at lunchtime that you can afford the largest amount of food, because... The average daily peak of gastric acidity is observed in the middle of the day. Lunch should be served before 3 pm.

Have dinner no later than 8 pm. Eating after 8 pm overloads normal pancreatic function and blocks the release of melatonin, which is essential for sound, healthy sleep.

Distribution of calories during the day

Preparing for a new day for the body should begin with a certain supply of energy. To work fully, a person needs calories. That is why the most useful and optimal diet will be one in which our body receives a little more than 70% of the total kilocalories consumed at breakfast and lunch. And less than 30% of the total amount remains for dinner and intermediate snacks. With such a nutritional schedule, a person receives enough strength for his activities without storing excess fat during a rich evening feast.

A gap of 4-5 hours between individual meals will be the most optimal and physiological. And the time from the last meal to bed should be at least three to four hours. Such a diet can replenish the energy costs of our life and control appetite without loading the human system with extra calories.

Following these principles of optimal nutrition and rational eating, as well as the previous rules of healthy eating, will not only protect your weight from extra pounds, but also keep it from unnecessary problems with the stomach and heart disease.

Now about the intervals between meals. Ideal from a physiological point of view, it would be to start the next meal only when the digestion of the food eaten at the previous meal has finished. To this we must add that the digestive organs, like every other organ of the human body, need periods of rest. And finally, digestion has a certain impact on all processes occurring in the body, including the activity of the central nervous system. The combination of these conditions leads to the fact that a person accustomed to a measured diet develops a normal appetite at the right time.

One of the indicators of the duration of the act of digestion is the time it takes for food to be removed from the stomach. It has been established that with normal functioning of the stomach and other digestive organs, the process of digesting food lasts about 4 hours. Each meal leads to a more or less pronounced change in the state of the central nervous system. After eating, especially a large one, some apathy sets in, attention decreases, the will relaxes, the person tends to sleep, that is, in the language of a physiologist, conditioned reflex activity decreases. This state of the central nervous system, which occurs immediately after eating, lasts, depending on the abundance of food taken, for an hour or more. Then all these sensations smooth out, and finally, by the end of the fourth hour, the food center returns to its normal state - appetite appears again. And if a person who is accustomed to the regime does not eat in a timely manner, he becomes weak, his attention decreases, and his performance decreases. Moreover, in the future, appetite may disappear. If you are systematically late with food or eat on a full stomach, the normal activity of the digestive glands is disrupted and digestion is upset. A longer period between meals occurs during night sleep, but it should not exceed 10-11 hours. The general rule is the following: the intervals between small meals can be short (2-3 hours), but eating earlier than 2 hours after the previous meal is not advisable. On average, breaks between meals should be 4-5 hours. food diet food menu

The distribution of the daily diet, that is, the preparation of a menu, is of great importance. This combines issues of food quantity, its quality composition and consistency in taking individual dishes.

The total amount of food consumed by a person per day, together with liquid dishes and drinks, is on average about 3 kilograms. Breakfast is the first meal after sleep. During the night's sleep, everything eaten the day before was digested, all organs of the body, including the digestive ones, rested and favorable conditions were created for their further work. Scientists involved in nutrition issues are unanimous that it is necessary to have breakfast, regardless of whether a person is engaged in physical or mental activity. We can only talk about what part of the diet should contain breakfast. It is believed that if a person is engaged in physical labor, then breakfast should contain approximately 1/3 of the daily ration, both in volume and nutritional value. If a person who does manual labor eats a breakfast that is insignificant in volume and nutritional value, or even worse, starts work on an empty stomach, then he cannot work at full load, and his performance drops significantly. It has now become fashionable, especially among knowledge workers, to limit themselves to a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast. They refer to lack of time and appetite. Both are the result of an incorrect lifestyle, general regimen, including diet. Putting things in order in your diet (as, indeed, in your entire lifestyle) is entirely within the power of a person, and anyone who wants to can overcome the bad habit of eating poorly, and by the way, give up bad habits such as alcohol abuse and smoking .