>Dinner for the 21st century

>So much has changed in our society in the past 100 years. I think it’s time for dinner to catch up.

We are no longer an agricultural or industrial society. The vast majority of adults hold desk jobs. The idea of sitting at a desk all day and then coming home and eating salad with dressing, meat, vegetables, starch, and dessert borders on the insane. Particularly because early evening (that period still known as dinnertime) is the only time many of us have to work out — and you don’t want to eat a large meal either before a workout or before bed time.

I’ve switched to eating a late afternoon snack of fruit and protein (usually and apple with cheese or peanut butter) or sometimes a small bowl of soup. After my workout, I eat a small serving of polenta or pasta with cheese, or sometimes an two-egg omelette. Other times it’s a stir fry with brown rice.

Of course I miss traditional dinners! I was raised on them! And on days that I don’t work out, such as weekends, I try to get in moderate exercise during the day (such as walking or hiking) and then enjoy a traditional evening meal.

I suspect that our society will, in the next hundred years, shift to eating four or five mini-meals during the day. But we’re far enough from that now that I still feel odd about “missing dinner.”