Many people eat three meals a day. But we don't have to eat this way.

In trying to find a new routine while working from home, many Americans are drawn to eating a Big Meal once a day when they're ready to have it. A Big meal is large and can be eaten at any time of the day, typically in the late afternoon. It is not a diet, just a convenient way of eating.

Moving away from three meals might at first feel unnatural, but that eating schedule is both very recent and born out of social convenience. We don't eat three meals because of nutritional science or a natural human inclination.

It is mostly the consequence of industrialization, which took the population away from home regularly. Before that, people worked during daylight, pausing midmorning and later in the afternoon. It was a two-meal schedule based on outdoor physical labour.