How many food contacts did you have today?

Breakfast - not a usual one - a piece of lemon cake with a swipe of lemon curd across the top. Tossed a part of what was already a small serving (too sweet, cake too lemony), and proceeded to do some freezer clearing. Found an ice cream carton with about a tablespoon in it, ate it.

Made some chicken marsala (3 chicken breasts, mushrooms, capers, some marsala, chicken broth) - ended up roasting all that, and ate a half of one plus some jus. Froze the rest.

Just now, finished off a previously cooked roman artichoke/cut in half, followed by a piece of leftover beef roast with a couple of tablespoons of cooking jus.
Will likely have an orange soon.

I think that makes six.

I'm wondering what is considered a 2nd contact, as in how much time goes by before it's considered another contact.

I wouldn't call it another contact if I ate a meal, then within 5 minutes decided to take something else.

Personally, I'd say like half an hour.

Some people must pick at food all day long....I'm thinking in the form of those cupcakes someone brought to work....a bag of chips....a dozen m&m's.....never feeling full, never really feeling hungry.

I feel best when I eat enough so I don't think about food for at least 4 hours, and then only to wonder what the next meal might be. More like getting an appetite.

I agree.

On mine, it's hard to count that throwaway breakfast. I usually have different/healthier, but the type of food wasn't the question... so you don't want to hear I eat a lot of sardines too. And I just happened to have made my first beef roast in at least ten years yesterday, so that was the obvious dinner. I tend to cook up stuff to freeze after my first part of the month big grocery shop, so that's when meat meals happen.

I'm not much of a snacker - not sure when that happened. I stopped buying a lot of packaged food eons ago, partly re the ingredients and partly re money - and got used to snack avoidance, except for oranges and sometimes refrigerator pickled veggies.

I blow the whole thing once in a while with a bag of salt and pepper potato chips.

It wasn't my intent to make this about what is eaten. For example I'm not going to say what my 3 meals were, except to say they were real food.

I just think if you're eating 20 different times a day, I don't think they're handfuls of nuts, fruit or actual food you're scarfing down.

Ok., I'll go back to three, then.

I'll go read more about this whole thing - I never have heard the phrase food contacts.

I don't think it's some "official" term. In my mind it's like "How many times a day do you individual put something (what many would call food, I wouldn't) in your mouth.

It was just used in a book I'm reading. Not like it's some patented term.

I've been thinking about it. Now this is just my personal opinion. I think if you go into a typical American grocery store/supermart, AND you were to take away the parameter of the store, where produce, meats (including fish), dairy are found, I don't think the area (besides cleaning products/sundries) remaining contains more than 20%-25% FOOD.

My personal definition of food is one that gives you real pleasure (not the fleeting pleasure of some cheap sugary thing that melts in an instant, inducing you to put more in your mouth to recapture the moment (kinda like chasing the dragon, huh?), as well as provides good to excellent nutrition for our human system.

As far as nutrition, I also don't consider items that shout out on their boxes/plastic wrap "CHOCK FULL OF VITAMINZ!" and the like. I'm insulted when I see boxes, that have individual plastic wrappers on the inside, and inside that are "blueberry apple cinamonny crispy chips, low fat and full of anit-oxidants!" For the price of this crap, why not buy a pint of blueberries, and an apple? Convenience? Oh yea, opening that container of fruit is hard.

But don't "they" (you know they - people we don't know that knows all) - any way - don't they say that snacking throughout the day is supposed to be healthier than eating the normal 3 meals a day?

Does gum count?

And is contact mean actually eating? Or maybe being around food - like you said people bring in cupcakes (you may not eat it but the opportunity is there - ie contact). 20 seems alot even for snackers - that is what makes it seems like contact in the sense of exposure rather than actually eating.

I finally looked it up - and no luck, the words food contact in anything like this kind of context don't seem to be on google yet (though I didn't look at that many pages).

This morning I made 1 scramble eggs. In contact with eggs,milk salt,pepper and butter =5items
I served 1 serving pancakes which adds flour now I have 6 items
I served toast, butter and marmelade. Now I have 8 different items
I served tea,orange juice and yoghurt adding three more items =11 items.
Just drank one cup of coffee. If it means personal contact with .... it is just one item for me.

On Thursday, I had two food contacts. Breakfast and dinner. (I don't eat lunch.) I usually have three, but I skipped my cookies and milk.

I rarely snack.

So far it's been 2, there will hopefully be a 3rd if I can put myself towards it. Who knows, maybe I'll get ambitious and go for 4!

They meant actually eating when they said contact.

Personally I think "they" are full of ****.

Snacking isn't supposed to mean eathing all throughout the day.

People hear that, and it gives them license to eat nearly constantly.
I guess those are the people who are eating 20 times a day.

A snack is just that...a quite small amount of food, a few bites, taken between 2 main meals. Not 2 or 3 contacts, or episodes of eating between lunch and dinner let's say.
If you're eating enough at your main meals, you wouldn't feel the need for something that involves more than let's say 5 or 6 bites. Like what it would take to eat a small banana, yogurt or such....or the occassional cupcake.

I also wonder what people mean when they say "I occassionally eat xxx"

Oh, the exception to eating lots and lots between meals is your fast growing, constantly starving teenager.
I get an enormous amount of pleasure watching teens who are fit eating mass quantities, then wondering what's for dinner.

Little kids too can eat a lot sometimes, when the mood strikes.

I'm talking about adults who would normally be busy working, and you wouldn't think their minds would be on food it they were engrossed in what they were doing.

Frankly, I think we don't eat enough at our regular meals, cheating ourselves of satisfaction by eating "food lite", then needing something else, even if just for mental fulfillment, to fill us up.

Why would an otherwise healthy adult, if they ate a good size nutritious breakfast and lunch, even want more than the maybe small little treat in between?

We're obssessed.

Your breakfast was 1 item, not 11.

Do you think people i.e. the French, eat just 7 different foods in a day?

Don't be ridiculous.

BTW, that sounds like a really good size breakfast.
I'll bet you didn't want to eat for hours and hours.

This is very confusing.

Chai, would you be so kind as to give link to the site that worked up all this?

I have had two contacts today and am really looking forward to a third. Usually I have 4 -- 3 meals and a coffee, more if you count wine (which I would). Today was unusual. I've never been a snacker or grazer, so it's just what I have for meals, sometimes 2, sometimes 3.

There's no link, I was reading this. What difference does it make? I stated exactly what it said, the 2 sentences. It got me thinking that 20 different episodes of eating would be improbable to me.

It wasn't something "all worked up"


What the hell is so confusing?

How....many.....different....times....do.....you.....eat.....in.....a.....day?

How many contacts would you normally have, including the wine, since you said you would count them?

Some people are confused re your premise. Saag, for example. Certainly I was, but I dared to answer.

I don't think I said all worked up, maybe I meant worked out - some site that was talking about all this.

Enjoy picking up pine nuts.