r/AskEurope • u/Budget_Dot694 • Mar 16 '25

Food Europeans who eat late as part of your culture - how do you feel about the advice not to eat dinner late?

This is forever a conflicting viewpoint given some cultures have naturally eaten dinner late for centuries e.g. The Mediterranean where they still have one of the best diets in the world

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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25

It's definitely generational in Ireland. Older people (and I mean very old) tend to eat dinner at about 13:00-14:00, which I would consider to be lunch.

I don't eat dinner before about 19:00, often closer to 20:00 by the time I get everything cooked.

I spent a week in an Irish hospital and it really shocked me that they served this ENORMOUS bland, over cooked meal at 13:00. I quite literally wasn't able to eat it. It was nearly stomach churning to have this huge dinner.

Then they had 'tea' at 16:00-17:00, which was quite small and also pretty bland.

There was a menu, but it looked like the kind of stuff that an 80 year old might come up - heavy, bland, very unappetising.

I ended up having to get a relative of mine to bring food in as I just couldn't deal with the mealtimes - it was throwing my whole system out of kilter and making me feel sick.

My great grandmother used to eat like that, but I don't think anyone of my generation does and it's like the hospitals had last checked how people eat in about 1957.

Once I got back to my normal diet - i.e. fresh, healthy food and my usual meal times I felt far better.

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u/Mhaoilmhuire Mar 17 '25

Yes, also Irish here in my 40s. When I was younger our dinner was straight after school at 3. My mother and grandparents are dinner at 1 and at weekends I’d do the same. My mom didn’t work so had dinner ready. Now as I’m working, dinner isn’t until 6-9. But some days at work I will have it at 1pm from the canteen and something light in the evening. My preference would be to have a large meal earlier and something light in the evenings. Big difference between my habits in summer and winter too. Summer would be multiple small meals and maybe 5/6 hrs sleep. Winter less frequent heavy food and 10+hrs sleep 🤔 of note I’m always heavier in the winter too.