I don't know, who are dey?

I never said I don't like getting +1s. I was just curious, given the coincidental timing in the two threads.

Ask not whom are de dey, de dey are you.

For whom the dinner gong tolls!

*gong*

No, not yet.

Dinner at 1PM?

Dinner is, traditionally speaking, the large meal of the day while lunch is a, comparatively speaking, light snack to tide one over until the large meal. What we call brunch used to be lunch, and dinner was at midday and supper was in the evening, another small meal. There are still folks who call the three meals breakfast, dinner, and supper, respectively. My grandfather is one of them. My mother alternates between dinner being at midday and in the evening, so sometimes I have to ask her to clarify. It's a pretty cool linguistic change that I like to show to the prescriptivists that deny language change happens. :)

Sunday dinner, like Christmas dinner, is always rather large and takes place in early afternoon. The tradition in our family was to have breakfast, lunch/dinner, and tea. I know plenty of people who have supper in the evening, but they are almost all upper-class.

I know when I was in Germany, their midday meal was the big one and dinner was the lighter meal. Growing up you had dinner or supper depending on if lunch was big or small orbeven a brunch instead. Big lunch was followed by loght supper. Small lunch was followed by big dinner. And brunch (which was usually big) would have a moderate early dinner and then a late night snack or supper.

I think of traditional meal pacing as based on taking advantage of sunlight. You ate a big breakfast when it was dark, had a light mid-day meal to keep you going during the prime daylight working hours, and ate a big dinner after the end of the workday.

As a person concerned with nutrition and health ( a diabetic trying to stay and eat healthy),I can say without hesitation that eating a big meal before bed is a bad idea.

Sure, but end of the work day doesn't necessarily mean that it's immediately bed time.

By my knowledge, most of Western Europe follows that, Draug. At least France and Germany both do.

I've only really visited Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and my Swiss time was one night as I had an early morning flight out of Zurich.

When we were in Germany, we hardly ate anything for dinner. We had pretty good sized lunches - big for Europe, average dinner size for America - and we were surprisingly full throughout the trip and really didn't need much for breakfast in the morning either. It seemed much more appropriate than meals do here.

In France, the grandes écoles students I know in schools have an hour and a half for lunch. Some go home if they are close, others go to a restaurant nearby, and some simply cook for themselves, but they fill it up for lunch. Dinner is small and suitable as a meal before bed and is more of a time for family rather than food.

Both of these are much better than America - first off, neither leaves you hungry, and somehow they make a piece of bread with nutella filling the next morning. Both are also much more social than my meals have ever been and actually uphold some kind of standard that family is important and should be valued whenever possible. I'm sure others have differing views on it but the European meals I've had are much more filling and valuable than any I could have here.

There was a study a while back on the effects it has on your metabolism and energy levels. Apparently having a big meal at either the start or e middle of the day has the effect that you burn off the energy before it amasses into fat. Eating a big dinner right before you crash on your couch for a sitcom doesnt do that for you.

Also, European meals vary wildly. The English have pure cholestorol for breakfast, while the Dutch have a slice of bread. The Dutch do that for lunch too, then eat potatoes for dinner. Brrrrr.

The only bad thing with the tiny breakfast, big lunch, light dinner approach is you get a sugar load at lunch that causes an excessive spike. The best way to eat healthy is 5 or 6 very light meals across the day.

I'd do that if I could, but alas, life, teachers, employers, and general people aren't in favor of it.

I eat MMs and Chocolate Covered Cookies

You might be surprised about the employers. The more progrssive ones are starting to recognize the value of alternative diets for health and have no problem with folks eating at their desks. And hourly employees in the US are guaranteed A 15 minute paid break for every 3.5 hours worked plus an unpaid 30 minute for every 7 hours giving one the abilitiy to have an apple or something else healthy on the short breaks and a light lunch on the lunch break.

Not the employers I've been around, and that's at three different jobs in three completely different industries. My school is open to that but my school is probably the most progressive at our level in Indiana so that's no surprise. Otherwise, nobody offers food during shifts, and one 30 minute break per day isn't enough.

Oh come on, no props for the MMCCC with the context of food going along with the subject? I'd +1 myself if I could.

Desperate but not serious.

going old school with the Adam Ant, eh? nice!

True, Indiana is behind Cincinnati in progressiveness and we all know that Mark Twain though Cincinnati was a decade behind the times, so indy must atill be stuck in the late 20th century. :-)

But seriously, the two 15 and one 30 minute break is federal labor law and they can't tell you that you can't eat on those breaks. Take a bag of apple slices and another of carrot sticks along with your sandwich for lunch. The apples are good for early day and the carrots provide make a nice midday snack. I also eat bell peppers in the afyernoon sometimes.

Sorry, Phil. Hadn't caught that. It's Wednesday so a long day with working the lenten soup supper then church service and finally choir practice. It was good though so I gave you a plus one.

Thanks Draug :-)

I have a friend whose last name is Brown and his consulting company is Dark Brown Stuff Computing Ltd. (DBSCL). Those are his, his wife's, and his three kids' first initials. I always liked that. Before I did Draugnar Productions, I had TCG Software and the TCG had meaning because as the initials I was given by my high school classmates after acing the first ever programming class taught at might high school (That Computer Geek).

Only read this page, but, judging from this, I feel I may have to respond.
Scots call breakfast breakfast / lunch dinner / supper tea.
Had a friend in the Highlands of Scotland called Dinner. Asked why, he said that when he was a kid his mother would shout from the 12th floor "Dinner!"