"Three Square Meals and Obesity"

"Three Square Meals and Obesity"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD 

A friend of mine recently posted a video about not eating three square meals a day. How this is the cause of obesity in our country. How she has never eaten three square meals in her life and has had no health issues whatsoever related to it. That we do not need to force ourselves and abuse our bodies to follow  the advise of our parents who meant well but was rather misguided in their quest  to make sure that we are fed properly.

I initially tried to message this friend of mine but thought better of it. I do mean well but in her posting this video she forgot to research about the causes of obesity. Some are really simple but mixed in is the complex as well. Having just given a lecture on obesity on the same day it seemed that this was fate.

I can mention this about this friend of mine , she is an exception to the rule of all this. And so she has been drawing from her own experience. For as long that I have known her she has been thin , even when she got married and had her child she has been thin. In the pictures of her with her family  , they have all been thin. So it is therefore same to assume that they have a genetic trait that eludes a lot of common pinoys. They may have faster metabolisms or simply do not retain fat as much as the normal folks.

With that being said The simple cause of Obesity which is Increased input of Nutrition and decreased consumption of energy does not apply to her. It will not matter how much food she intakes , she will metabolize it just as fast. She has always been active and an extrovert so the energy consumption is high as well.

As pertaining to appetite and satiety this will vary greatly from person to person. What does not vary however is the bodies response to periods of starvation. Most will stock up on nutrition knowing that there is a pattern of starvation or the skipping of a meal which would lead to a bigger appetite and lesser satiety. My friend does not have this particular problem as well. In fact I am betting that if we check her microbiome , the composition of microorganisms in our body that is unique to each of us , we might find that there are health promoting bacteria there. 

I don't mean any hate or malice toward my friend. Just that she has already possessed these advantages long before she even thought of posting that video. And for the rest of us. We still suffer and would need to eat three square meals a day to suffer less.