The Invention of Three Meals a Day: How Did Our Mealtime Get Set?

The Tyranny of the Clock—Why Do We Get Hungry at Set Times?

• For most of human history, two meals a day was the standard
• The social background behind the birth of the concept of ’lunch’ during the Industrial Revolution
• The deep and fascinating history hidden in our ordinary meal

The Era When Two Meals a Day Was the Standard

Have you ever seriously wondered why your hunger clock rings like clockwork at lunchtime, and why our day is neatly divided into three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner? We take this rule of ‘three meals a day’ as a natural law, like the rising and setting of the sun. But for most of human history, this rule was actually considered strange.

The familiar eating habit we call ‘three meals a day’ is not a biological imperative but a relatively recent historical invention shaped by powerful forces of religion, economy, and technology. This article starts from the two-meal worlds of ancient Rome and Joseon Korea, passes through the turbulent era when the revolutionary concept of ’lunch’ was born, and arrives at our modern dining tables.

Meals in Ancient Rome: A Stage for Socializing and Class

Looking into a day in the life of ancient Romans, we can clearly see how their meal culture reflected social hierarchy and lifestyle beyond mere nourishment. A Roman day typically began with a light breakfast called ientaculum, consisting of bread, wine, cheese, and the like.

The centerpiece of the day was undoubtedly the cena, the evening banquet. Originally the main meal around noon, cena gradually shifted to the evening as Roman society grew wealthier. For the upper class, cena was the most important social event after a day’s work. To fill the gap left by moving cena to the evening, a light midday meal called prandium—often leftovers from the day before—emerged.

The upper-class cena was a lavish social theater to display wealth and power. Reclining on long couches in the dining room called a triclinium was a symbol distinguishing free citizens from slaves. Exotic dishes like ostrich and flamingo were served on ornate tableware, and performances accompanied the meal while politics, philosophy, and social networking took place.

In contrast, the staple food for common Romans was puls, a grain porridge. They supplemented it with vegetables or occasionally some meat. Roman meal culture thus starkly reflected social class and mirrored the structure of Roman society.

Medieval Europe: Breakfast Was a ‘Sin’

Moving to medieval Europe, meal culture took on a different form. The standard was still two meals a day: a hearty dinner around noon and a light supper in the evening. The most surprising fact is that breakfast, now considered a symbol of health, was then morally suspect and even regarded as one of the seven deadly sins—gluttony.

Theologian Thomas Aquinas classified eating ’too early’ as a form of gluttony. Breaking the overnight fast too soon was seen as succumbing to bodily desires and disrupting spiritual focus.

Of course, hard laborers, children, and the elderly were allowed breakfast. This created a unique social dynamic where the ability to skip breakfast itself became a symbol of piety and high social status. This is a prime example of how even biological needs can be morally reconstructed by dominant ideologies—in this case, Christian theology.

Traditional Korean Meals: The True Meaning of ‘Jeomsim (Lunch)’

Surprisingly, traditional Korean society also primarily followed two meals a day for a long time. From the Three Kingdoms period through the Joseon Dynasty, the standard was ‘joseok (morning and evening)’, eating once in the morning and once in the evening. I vividly remember my grandmother asking if I had eaten joseok, a small sign that ’lunch’ had not fully settled into daily life until relatively recently.

The most interesting point here is the original meaning of jeomsim (點心). The word literally means ’to dot the heart’ and referred to a light snack like noodles or rice cakes eaten to ease hunger between breakfast and dinner. It was not a full meal. The war diary 『Swaemirok』 from the Imjin War period clearly distinguished between a light snack called ‘jeomsim’ and a hearty meal called ’nappap (day meal)’.

Unlike medieval Europe, this was very practical. During the busy summer farming season, people ate three meals; during the less active winter, two meals sufficed. This showed wisdom in adjusting meal frequency according to energy expenditure. The semantic shift of ‘jeomsim’ during modernization—from snack to full meal—is a linguistic fossil reflecting a major social transformation.

The Birth of ‘Lunch’: How Did Three Meals a Day Begin?

How did the long-standing world of two meals a day collapse, giving rise to the three-meal culture we know today? At the center was a powerful force called the ‘Revolution.’

The Industrial Revolution and the Worker’s ‘Lunch’

The strongest driver of change in Western eating habits was undoubtedly the Industrial Revolution. As society shifted from agrarian to industrial, workplaces and homes separated, and workers could no longer return home for a hearty midday meal.

Time now moved to the rhythm of factory whistles, leading to the birth of a fixed, short lunch break. There was a need for a new kind of meal that was quick, portable, and could be eaten on-site—this was the start of ’lunch.’

Workers’ lunches were simple and cold: pie slices, bread, oatcakes packed in tin lunchboxes. Poor eating conditions led to health issues, prompting the creation of dedicated lunchrooms.

Meanwhile, among the upper class, gas and electric lighting extended evening social activities, and a light social meal called ’luncheon’ around 1 p.m. became fashionable. The functional ’lunch’ of workers and the social ’luncheon’ of elites were both inevitable results of new industrial-era time and space realities.

The Establishment of Three Meals a Day in Korea

Korea’s transition to a three-meal system mainly occurred in the 20th century, especially during rapid industrialization after the Korean War.

The seeds of change were sown during the Japanese colonial period with the introduction of modern companies and school systems. However, three meals a day became widespread during the 1960s and 70s industrialization. Nationwide compulsory education and factory-centered labor imposed strict schedules on the population, making the rhythm of before work/school, lunch break, and after work/school the new norm.

The government played a decisive role. The 1970s Saemaul Movement and associated ‘dietary improvement campaigns’ promoted regular three meals as a modern national habit. Particularly, school lunches, starting as aid in 1953 and legalized in 1981, were a decisive mechanism that made an entire generation accept three meals a day as a given.

Comparison of Meal Cultures by Era

Culture Hidden at the Table: Food Beyond Nourishment

When, what, and how we eat goes beyond mere survival. Meals reflect a society’s values, power structures, and human relationships.

Theater at the Table: Expression of Status and Power

Historically, the dining table was often the most elaborately staged setting. The Victorian-era British dinner party exemplifies this. In this grand ritual of multiple courses, the focus was not only on taste but on extremely strict etiquette.

Hosts arranged seating based on guests’ social status, and talking about the food itself was taboo. The many types of forks and knives had to be used in a precise order, all to display wealth and refinement.

Interestingly, while the Roman cena was a ‘catalyst’ for conversation and socializing, the Victorian dinner party was more like a ‘performance’ with food as the star. The more elaborate and visually impressive the food, the more direct discussion about it was forbidden. This likely stemmed from the fact that when food became the ultimate symbol of wealth and taste, mentioning it directly was seen as a social faux pas that revealed the mechanism of display. Food was meant to be an elegant backdrop, not the subject of conversation.

Conclusion: Your Meal Is Full of History

We have witnessed the journey from a world where two meals a day was the norm to the Industrial Revolution’s birth of ’lunch’ and the new order of three meals a day. Once considered the pinnacle of modern life, this three-meal structure is now being challenged again.

The key takeaways from this long journey are:

1. Three meals a day is an invention: The eating habit we take for granted is not a natural law but a cultural product shaped by social, economic, and technological demands of specific eras.
2. ‘Lunch’ is a product of the Industrial Revolution: Factory labor and urbanization separated work and life spaces, creating the functional ’lunch’ for workers and the social ’luncheon’ for elites.
3. The dining table is a mirror of society: When and how we eat always reflects the power structures, social hierarchies, and values of the time.

Next time you sit down for lunch, take a moment to reflect. What you are about to do is not just satisfy hunger. You are participating in a tradition forged in the fires of the Industrial Revolution and shaped by the ambitions of the modern nation-state. Your humble meal is, in fact, a plate full of history.

Now it’s time to ask a new question: One hundred years from now, what history will our mealtimes record about our era?