Feeding Time

Birds at feeding time.
(dwm photo)

It's a natural thing.

Three.  Four.  Maybe even five times a day... we get hungry.

Sometimes I'm hungry for something crunchy. Other times I'm looking for sweet.

Does the clock make us hungry?

Seeing the hour hand hit 12 or 5 or 7 acts like a visual Pavlov's bell, igniting hunger pangs and my taste buds.

If there isn't a clock handy, my stomach becomes an alarm clock.  Yeah, you know what I mean.

If you're like me, you like to eat.  The problem or challenge is eating healthy as possible and stop lifting the food to our mouths before we get full.

There is a theory it's better to eat a number of small meals instead of three.  It could work, but portion size must be pretty important if you set the table a half-dozen times a day.

Breakfast was proclaimed the most important meal of the day by out mother's mothers, and like any good ol' wives tale - there is a lot of truth in the statement.

Eating early activates our metabolism and we have a day's worth of activity to work off the calories.  

Maybe that's why those midnight deliveries from Domino's and Paul Revere's back in college created the Freshman 15!

Juice cleansing has a level of popularity that's lost on me.  I'm sure it has its merit, but the "cleansing" experience before taking that special test for 50 year olds will last awhile, thank you very much.

Eating binds us together socially; it serves as the centerpiece of celebrations; and it's an economic juggernaut.

And all this writing about food is making me hungry... I hear ice cream calling.