You'll spoil your appetite!

Now, there's an expression you don't hear very much anymore! These days, when you turn on TV, there are images of people eating and snacking at all hours of the day. In fact, it would appear that the human species was meant to eat 24/7, very much like guinea pigs. It would appear that we were meant to graze anytime we weren't having a full meal or having a snack.

There are snacks to fill in the space between meals, and there are other snacks to fill in the spaces between snacks and other snacks. And look at the results... A nation with unprecedented levels of obesity.

But it's time for old wisdom, isn't it? Old wisdom said that you ate your three squares each day. And if you were a child, you might have a snack say, after school. Adults might even have a small snack sometime after dinner. But that was it. No mid-morning snacks no snack between snacks.

And yes, nothing too close to dinner, because it would indeed spoil our appetite. You know, this old wisdom goes back even further than you might think. The Buddhists believe that when you sit down to eat you just eat. And that sitting down to eat should be an activity that takes place with an empty stomach. Not a stomach full of snacks.

Old wisdom also said, that snacks weren't meant to be garbage. They weren't meant to be protein bars made on a large assembly line. They were usually things that were deceptively but deliciously simple. An apple. A slice of bread and butter. Even some crunchy cereal, right out of the box. And I don't mean highly flavored cereal... I mean things like a handful of Cheerios, or some Wheaties, or corn flakes.

So follow the old wisdom. Don't spoil your appetite. And you don't need to be eating or stacking 24/7. No matter what the commercials seem to show.

Comments

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