The Vikings customarily ate two meals each day. The first, dagmál or "day-meal" was eaten in the morning, approximately two hours after the day's work was started (7 AM to 8 AM or so), while the second, náttmál or "night meal" was consumed at the end of the day's labor (7 PM to 8 PM or so). These times would vary seasonally, depending on the hours of daylight. Major Austin says: "Truly, popular tastes and prejudices are rooted more in social habits than in basic physiological demands." It should be known that the three-meals-a-day custom is really a modern one, and is not universally practiced even today. So far as history records none of the nations of antiquity practiced it. At the period of their greatest power, the Greeks and Romans ate only one meal a day. Dr. Oswald says: "For more than a thousand years the one-meal system was the rule in two countries that could raise armies of men every one of whom would have made his fortune as a modern athlete--men who marched for days under a load of iron (besides clothes and provisions) that would stagger a modern porter." He also says, "The Romans of the Republican age broke their fast with a biscuit and a fig or two, and took their principle meal in the cool of the evening." Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNRY8qJK Herodotus records that the invading hosts (over five millions) of the Persian general Xerxes, had to be fed by the conquered cities along their lines of march. He states as a fortunate circumstance the fact that the Persians, including even the Monarch and his courtiers, ate one meal a day. Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNRcWRQx The Jews from Moses until Jesus ate but one meal a day. They sometimes added a lunch of fruit. We recall reading once in the Hebrew scriptures these words (quoting from memory): "Woe unto the nation whose princes eat in the morning." If this has any reference to dietetic practices it would indicate that the Jews were not addicted to what Dr. Dewey called the "vulgar habit" of eating breakfast. In the oriental world today extreme moderation, as compared to the American standard, is practiced. Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNRgoSMn Dr. Felix Oswald says that "during the zenith period of Grecian and Roman civilization monogamy was not as firmly established as the rule that a health-loving man should content himself with one meal a day, and never eat till he had leisure to digest, i.e., not till the day's work was wholly done. For more than a thousand years the one meal plan was the established rule among the civilized nations inhabiting the coast-lands of the Mediterranean. The evening repast--call it supper or dinner--was a kind of domestic festival, the reward of the day's toil, an enjoyment which rich and poor refrained from marring by premature gratifications of their appetites." Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNRqwG9n A sixteenth century proverb says, "To rise at six, dine at ten, sup at six and go to bed at ten, makes a man live ten times ten." Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNRzRJJn Katherine Anthony informs us that the average English family adopted the habit of eating three meals a day during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNS2VmHP Andrew Borde, a physician who lived during the reign of Henry VIII, wrote that: "Two meals a day is sufficient for a rest man; and a laborer may eat three times a day; and he that doth eate ofter lyveth a Beestly lyfe." Salzman's English Life in the Middle Ages, tells us that: "Breakfast as a regular meal is little heard of, though probably most men started the day with a draught of ale and some bread." Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNS9rNxr "Barely two centuries ago," says Major Austin, "the first meal of the day in England was taken about noon. Breakfast was an unrecognized meal and it originated in the practice of ladies taking an early dish of chocolate before rising. The ancient Greeks--the finest of people, physically and mentally, that ever lived--ate but two meals a day. The same was true of the ancient Hebrews and it is the custom of some of the best fighting races in India today." The Countess of Landsfeld, writing in 1858, describes the eating habits of the English upper class of that time in these words: "After this meal comes the long fast from nine in the morning till five or six in the afternoon, when dinner is served." This would indicate that the two-meals-a-day plan had survived in England up to that time. Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Orthotrophy/Two-Meals-A-Day.html#.Uv8ju7T5OSo#ixzz2tNdkY7Pw Трехразовое питание в Греции предполагало наличие двух завтраков и обильного обеда. Обед устраивался в вечернее время. На пир приглашались друзья, которым присылались приглашения через вестников-рабов. Приглашенные могли привести на пир своих друзей. Случалось, что к обеду приходили граждане, которых никто не приглашал — паразиты. Непрошеных гостей не принято было выгонять, но к ним относились с презрением.За стол садились строго в назначенное время, не дожидаясь опоздавших. Пиры устраивались только на мужской половине дома. Так как аккуратность считалась признаком вежливости, то у входа все снимали обувь, рабы омывали гостям ноги, предлагали принять ванну и умаститься благовониями Царю Паламеду история приписывает изобретение трёхразового питания На протяжении всей истории, приемы пищи были непостоянными. Средневековый крестьянин из Северной Европы начинал утро с пива и хлеба, затем брал какую-то пищу с собой в поле, и у него был большой прием пищи где-то во второй половине дня. Он мог поужинать около 2 часов дня, а мог около 6 часов вечера или еще позже, в зависимости от работы, времени года и других факторов. Обычно это не был плотный прием пищи, а скорее что-то легкое и быстрое. В те времена ужину не придавали такое большое значение, как последние несколько веков. Также, чаще всего ужинали в дневное время, и не потому, что ранний прием пищи был здоровее, а потому что приготовление пищи, прием и мытье посуды было гораздо труднее осуществлять в темноте или при свете огня. Люди небогатые старались спланировать прием пищи до наступления темноты. И когда было открыто электричество, только богатые люди могли позволить себе поздний прием пищи. Прием пищи после наступления темноты считался признаком статуса и класса. Менее четверти опрошенных местных жителей едят только два раза в день (по большей части они пропускают завтрак). The tradition about the legions being near vegetarian in camp is very believable for the early Republican era. Scurvy references are reliable, I believe.