The French paradox

The French dine on baguettes, cheese, pate and pastries, all washed down with plenty of wine -- so why don’t they seem to get fat?

This so-called “French paradox redux” that allows French people to eat all the “forbidden” foods and stay thin while Americans get fatter has been demystified by a new Cornell study.

Researchers found that while the French use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, Americans use external cues -- such as whether their plate is empty, whether their beverage has run out and whether their TV program is over.

What is it about the French culture that seems to favor thinness, even in the midst of all of that bread, cheese, butter, wine and heavy sauces? In a sentence: they eat real food, and they savor it.

Unlike the United States where mega-supermarkets are the norm, many people in France still shop for fresh unprocessed food every day or two. They have access to wonderful farmer’s markets, specialty food shops, and butchers that sell fresh produce, hand-made cheeses, high-quality meats, and fermented, sourdough breads. (And many of them WALK to get there.)

Whereas an American may sit down to a breakfast of a cheese omelet made with processed cheese and store-bought eggs, a similar French-made omelet would include naturally fermented cheese made from raw milk from grass-fed cows, and eggs that came from a small farm, and were not refrigerated but simply left out on the counter (which is the best way to store your eggs, assuming they are of high-quality).

Now I am not one to recommend eating cooked eggs at all, but my point is that the difference in food quality is quite extraordinary. Though Americanized junk food and fast food is slowly infiltrating France, it is still not the norm, at least for the older generations.

Frequency of meals

I guess this is the most authentic allopathic view on the issue:

"The experts agreed that, as long as we do not consume more energy than we use up and we only eat when we are hungry, it may be useful to split our total energy intake into as many meals as our social pattern allows. However, the pattern of eating cannot be completely dissociated from the composition of foods consumed. Therefore within this energy intake, we must take care to consume not only a good balance of macronutrients with high carbohydrate and low fat levels, but also ensure that we get an adequate intake of essential micronutrients. "What you eat" and "When you eat it" are public health messages to communicate: frequent consumption of low energy dense high carbohydrate foods, rich in micronutrients, must be encouraged ensuring that energy intakes are not greater than energy expenditures and that eating episodes occur in a hunger state."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15806828?ordinalpos=5&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

The ayurvedic view:

"Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty"

What constitutes a state of hunger? Surely it's a signal by the body that you need to eat.
If there is no hunger signal, don't eat.
Over a period of time, depending on what you eat, a natural time cycle, suitable to you, will develop, and you would find yourself hungry at those times.
Whether that is once a day or six times a day is unimportant, and is also dependant on other factors such as lifestyle and age.
"One size fits all" is not an option here, however here are a few generalised guidelines:
A breakfast of cereal, nuts and fruit. Modify the basic Bircher Berner breakfast to suit your needs.
Lunch as the heaviest meal of the day.
Fruit in the afternoon. (Or for that matter, whenever you get hunger pangs).
A light dinner at or around sunset.
The later you eat dinner, the lighter it should be.

A common Indian alternate:

Brunch at forenoon.
Dinner at sunset.