This study found that eating 17 small meals per day, as apposed to eating a metabolically identical diet of 3 meals a day, lowered cholesterol and insulin levels across a 2 week period.
This study is pretty old but it is interesting. I’m interested in a diet like this and am wondering what the good people of r/nutrition think about it and if you can point me in the direction of any other info on its benefits or disadvantages.
Of course with a diet like this it would be important to maintain a healthy balance of nutrients, rather than just eating the types of unhealthy snacks that people tend to consume between meals.
The biggest drawback of eating frequent small meals is that you’re more likely to have dental caries. Salivary pH is less conducive to bacterial growth than the pH of most foods. Plus the bacteria live on the sugars in food (including starches converted to sugar by salivary amylase). But if you have good teeth and make a point of increasing dental hygiene efforts (maybe brushing a few extra times) it’s probably fine.
Every time you eat your body is spending a majority of its time, energy, and nutrients to digest and utilize the food you just put into your body. If you eat 17 times a day you are not allowing your body to spend its energy and nutrients elsewhere. That is a terrible idea to be constantly taxing your digestive system, it doesn’t matter how small the meal is. As a certified health coach and personal trainer who’s been studying nutrition for over a decade that is honestly one of the worst dieting plans I have ever seen.
I’d love a diet like this 😂 I eat three meals and two solid snacks every day and occasionally munch in between. My IF friends shudder I’m sure but it works for me. Obviously five doesn’t equal 17 though…one downside is, you’re going to literally be eating all day. How far apart were the “snack meals”? 17 through a day is probably going to be at least once an hour, more for some people.