When a new idea is presented, our tendency is to defend what is familiar to us. Nothing could be more sacred that our habitual ways of eating and drinking. In today’s society where food is available everywhere, at any hour, the idea of not eating for a few hours is a radical idea.

And yet, the notion of having three scheduled meals per day, and snacks in between those times, is a very recent development. It is often presented as essential for the body, like a baby feeding on demand at his mother’s breast. A huge industry has been created to promote and supply foods to satisfy this expectation, in the minds of most people, that we cannot do without this frequent ingestion of food and stimulant beverages.

The term ‘break-fast’ derives from the fact that we participate in a period of abstinence due to sleep, of at least 8 hours, and then must reintroduce food. This mythology has arisen that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. No one seems to have asked my body what it prefers. And because it takes advantage of this scheduled ‘down time’ in bed, it finally gets a chance to rest and repair my systems….and it might want to continue that process a bit longer.

The science to support this is compelling but my own experience is invaluable and liberating.

Such an extension has become known as intermittent fasting in contrast to not eating at all for a full day, or several days. It challenges the idea that I need to add fuel by eating before every waking activity, just like I might put gas in my car before driving any distance as if it had a very small reserve capacity.

Social patterns develop and notions of hunger are triggered around specific times of day – 7 AM and Noon especially. Now, I find it a great advantage to not experience hunger and cravings during the day and evening. I can enjoy other activities more, whether work or leisure.

With most adults working outside the home in this modern era, speed and convenience are advertised by food processing companies. Most of that involves grains of some type turned into boxed cereals, bread, bagels, and the like. The addition of fruit or nuts is simply to make them palatable and sugar became the main additive. The dependence of glucose for fuel sets up a craving and requires frequent refuelling.

So, to skip breakfast entirely is a major departure from the norm. And then to discover that you feel fine until Noon might be a surprise at first. This is easy when we are not dependent on carbohydrates for fuel, but use fats primarily, whether from the food just eaten or from body reserves.

In fact, my body now demands better quality food – more nutrient-dense nutrition – to operate at full capacity in the face of less frequent re-fuelling. And because I have chosen to make fats from animal sources my key energy fuel, I am actually re-learning what my recent and distant ancestors practiced for survival in much more difficult conditions.

It came as a shock that I had to admit that modern methods did not improve the quality of food. The focus on shipping ‘fresh’ food from other countries – because we can – completely ignores assessing and responding to my body’s true needs.

The invention of refrigeration had caused me to ignore local sources of quality foods. Now I shop at the local farm a few minutes away where I know first hand about the quality of the land, the water and the farming practices!