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The old saying goes: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.” In present-day America, however, our approach to meals tends to be the opposite.
There are a few theories behind why we seem stuck in a pattern with dinner as the heaviest meal. A 2015 Washington Post article references a study on circadian rhythms possibly causing hunger spikes and cravings for sweet, salty, starchy foods later at night, along with the suggestion that this may be due to evolution: It was once efficient for humans to eat late at night in order to store energy as fat and glycogen for the next day. There’s also the hormone factor: Cortisol and adrenaline drop off midday, so if we’re working late into evening or night, we’re looking for a boost from food.