Everybody who goes on a diet has heard of the weight loss mantra followed by our ever loved celebs, 5-6 small meals a day! Ever considered nine small meals in a day? A new study suggests that people should eat nine small meals a day for overall well-being and healthiness. The Daily Mail reported that eating so many small meals a day will lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels and even encourage weight loss!   “Splitting food intake so we eat many times a day will have metabolic benefits over and above the same food consumed in a small number of meals,” the paper quoted Dr Susan Jebb, head of the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Research Unit, as saying.

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In one of the latest studies, scientists from Imperial College, London, compared the diets of more than 2,000 people from the UK, Japan, China and the U.S. While everyone consumed the same amount of calories, half the participants ate lesser than six times a day while the others ate more than six times. The first group had a significantly higher BP compared with the more frequent eaters. Another research from the University of Athens, based on more than 2,000 children aged nine to 13; found those who ate five times a day were 32.6% less likely to have high levels of bad cholesterol than those who ate fewer meals.

Scientists and their ilk are still not sure why eating more often has so many health benefits. One theory is that it prevents high influx of fatty acids thus leading to less fat build up in arteries and lower ‘bad’ cholesterol levels. This also prevents high blood pressure and diabetes. It also enables the body to digest food more effectively and there is no ‘spiking of blood sugar levels’. However, eating frequent meals is not an excuse to eat more, said Dr Susan Jebb, and it’s important that calorie intake is tightly controlled if people are going to eat as many as six or nine meals a day.

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