Three 'square' meals: Nigerian perspective

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Food is the fuel that human body needs to function in the right way. A body without food will be down emotionally, Such body will lack every zeal to push on as there wont be any strength to even push.

I have always argued that the world would have been less complicated if food is not part of our daily routine.

The Yoruba people of Nigeria believe that human throat is like a road to heaven. Very narrow and long.

You will agree with me that food take large part of human worries. While we want houses, cars and other material stuffs, they are dependent on whether there is food in our stomach.

Without food, there wont be zeal and determination to achieve anything. Even to dream would be very hard as confusion would most likely set in.

So food is obviously important to human body and for body to function properly.

But what i don't get is where we got the idea of three 'square' meals a day from. Could it be linked to our concept of time?

Africa believe that time is past, present and future. Similarly, we believe that a day comprises of morning, afternoon and night.

This also extend to human life. We believe that man has his morning period (kids/teenage), afternoon period (youths/adults) and evening period (old age).

Could this idea be responsible for why we practice three square meals a day in Nigeria?

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We feed our children, or our parents feed us on time-based. We eat in the morning, afternoon and night.

In most cases, once we eat in the morning, except it is time for afternoon food, our parents wont listen to us. Similarly, except night is ripe, they wont give us food.

This tradition might look strange to readers who are not from Nigeria or those born by the rich.

But for the middle class family, they can relate to this tradition that has been passed from one generation to another.

It is the same way i was trained. My mom doesn't listen to me if i say i am hungry when it is not time for morning, afternoon or evening food.

They make sure they don't worry themselves when we ask for food when it is not 'time'.

Except they have extra money to give us to buy biscuit or snacks, we have to wait for the right time to eat.

I am not sure this is practiced in other places as my family who travelled down from U.S ate when they are hungry and not according to time.

I had to ask their mom if they have eaten afternoon food and she looked at me like what is he saying? Her response was they eat whenever they are hungry!

That moment, i realised this is probably a tradition we practiced only in Nigeria.

How do you feed your children? Do they eat when they are hungry or you have similar time based schedule to feed them?

Let's hear from you.

Thanks for your time.