Industrialization and the three meals per day norm

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.