It may seem somewhat ironic that a man famously famous for seeming to live on cigarettes and heroin can teach us all something really important about the way we can eat today.
And I’m not talking about taking drugs to curb (or stimulate) your appetite, although compulsion comes into it.
There’s a chapter in his book, Life, where he describes his recipe for bangers (sausages) and explains very reasonably that we’re past eating three times a day. If you haven’t read the second best biography ever (Open is my all-time favourite), let me explain.
In the olden days, before computers and offices and sales people and workers who travel most of the week, there were factories. And before that, farms. Factories and farms were dependent on workers slaving away together at the same time. Thresh the wheat, pass it to the person bailing it. Attach your component to the device so it can be passed down the line to the next person. You couldn’t come to work in the morning without breakfast “because you’re not a morning eater” and wait until the lunch bell rang at 12 to eat. Why?
Because you’d be grumpy, tired and starving with the physicality (and quite possibly mind-dulling madness) of your job. And you couldn’t just take a break whenever you wanted, because your role in the operation was interconnected with everyone else’s on the job.
I don’t think we even realise that mothers, for the most part, have followed this routine with babies and children, which prepares them for school, which incidentally, was designed to keep your children occupied whilst you worked in the factory where they could join you one day.
The reason we eat three meals a day is convenience.
Whether we’re fat, thin, tall, active, sedentary, blue-eyed, long-legged, hippy, lippy or hairy, we’re still being indoctrinated in this antiquated way of eating.Gone are the days when we need to eat together. Now we choose to do so – a regular family dinner, birthday, celebration – we do it to spend time together and food is just part of the ritual. We don’t eat food at celebrations because we’re hungry; we do it for connection.
I’m not saying eat whatever you want when you’re hungry, because processed foods high in sugar, salt and fats are most definitely going to affect brain development and performance. What you should be doing is training your body – and your mind – to eat when you’re hungry.
Unless it’s a special occasion, or we’re out for dinner, we don’t need to take meals together at work anymore and once you’re out of school, you don’t even need to have breakfast before you leave home. Some of us have it in the car, on the train or pick up a milky coffee before hitting the office and have it as morning tea. For lunch, it’s pretty much the same for most workers (teachers must love convenience). You can pretty much snack whenever you want.
If you’re under 30, your tastes and interests in food are changing constantly – like when you were a baby. Eating at a set time with a pre-determined (but increasing) amount of food has as little to do with your development as what you’re eating. You need a balanced diet at every stage of your life, but that diet is different depending on where you are, your lifestyle and your genes. And what you’re doing.
Eat when you're hungry, is what Keith recommends. It's really that simple.