Why Giada De Laurentiis Believes In Eating 5 Meals A Day

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Celebrity chefs, they're just like us — well, maybe not exactly, but they still have to focus on their wellness even while cooking up some of the world's best dishes on a daily basis. Giada de Laurentiis is our favorite authority on pasta tips, dreamy pastries, creamy sauces, and more. How does the entrepreneur, author, and TV personality balance her creations with feeling good and fit? According to her 2013 book "Giada's Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets," de Laurentiis believes in eating five meals a day. Calling it one of the keys to her lifestyle, she writes, "While breakfast is absolutely the most important meal of the day, you can forget that old rule about not snacking between meals. Five smaller meals a day are so much better for you; they are easier for you to digest than three big ones, which makes for a happy metabolism."

The idea is instead of focusing solely on the traditional breakfast, lunch, and dinner, letting yourself get quite hungry between each one and then having a bigger, heavier meal, more meals but smaller meals keep you grazing, digesting, and metabolizing throughout the day. You never get starving, you never get overly full, and you're not spiking and crashing your system. For example, De Laurentiis won't eat eggs for breakfast but will eat them for lunch or dinner — despite valuing breakfast, with her smaller-meal approach, she sees something as filling as eggs as more appealing for lunch or dinner.

While eating lighter meals more frequently works for De Laurentiis, no one plan works for everyone, nor should any of us simply follow the lead of a celebrity — even one who's a food expert — without consulting our doctor or nutritionist. Every person has a different body and system with different needs. The number of meals we should eat in a day has long been an issue of debate, as there's no clear guidance on it. But that's because one blanket recommendation won't suit all of us. Three, four, or five meals may be best for you depending on your schedule, level of activity, nutrients you need, and foods you gravitate toward.

We can still use approaches like De Laurentiis' for inspiration. Learning about her five-meal system may make us reevaluate our own and ask our doctor or nutritionist about what we eat and if there's anything fresh we can change to shake things up and feel our healthiest yet. After all, there's more that goes along with De Laurentiis' routine. For example, as she shared with AARP, she fasts for 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. The unusual combo De Laurentiis eats for breakfast these days? Brown rice or oatmeal with olive oil — hearty and savory, but not overly complicated or filling to a level that drags you down. Any of these tips could be worth trying, with the goal of a satisfying, energizing, tasty routine.