It is high time we revisited our daily meal plan of breakfast, lunch and dinner. And listened instead to our body’s circadian rhythm, the weather, our access to interesting ingredients and, quite simply, the demands of the day.According to a recent article in The Guardian, the concept of three formal, structured meals is largely a product of industrial-era Europe, evolving alongside factory shifts and work schedules. And it is terribly outdated.Over centuries, the three-meal plan was perpetuated by a social structure that relied heavily on women to ensure that the family sat down for that one proper meal at night, while the kids and men carried a robust sandwich for lunch. Breakfast, meanwhile, was imagined as a table bursting with the goodness of milk and cereals, eggs and pancakes.The onus of planning meals and enforcing a certain discipline around food rested with women. The three-meal schedule, argues the report, became a marker of civilisation, class and gendered control. Things that sit rather uneasily in the modern household.While the three-meal plan travelled to many colonised cultures, including ours, here’s where it gets interesting.We have always celebrated grand thalis and elaborate multi-course meals, often treating them as report cards for the household kitchens run by the womenfolk. But alongside them thrived something just as important: the scrumptious tiffin (a colonial legacy) and the nashta (with Persian roots). Those in-between mouthfuls that nourish not just the body but also provide a crucial emotionalreset. Ergo, we reach out for benne dosas and deep-fried samosas, the viral jhaalmuri or crisp mochar chop, DIY Buddha bowls and dahi vadas, a thousand innovative parathas and, of course, Maggi. The beauty of our deliciously diverse and highly absorbent food culture is this, you will never run out of ideas.Perhaps the future of eating isn’t about squeezing life into three designated meals, but allowing our meals to fit around life instead. Around deadlines, monsoon afternoons, long commutes, celebrations, cravings and the occasional 4pm slump.The world may be waking up to something we have known all along. The best meal of the day need not be breakfast, lunch or dinner. But simply, a really good snack.
