So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, / Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!

I've often been impressed with a girl Who could sing for her supper - and breakfast as well

He that feeds upon charity has a cold dinner and no supper

Fussing over food was important. It gave a shape to the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner; beginning, middle, end.

Before you go to dinner, before you go to breakfast, before you do whatever, if you feel like bingeing, sit down and write down what you are thinking and what you are feeling.

One consequential change is that people used to get most of their calories at breakfast and midday, with only the evening top-up at suppertime. Now those intakes are almost exactly reversed. Most of us consume the bulk--a sadly appropriate word here--of our calories in the evening and take them to bed with us, a practice that doesn't do any good at all.