Fourth Meal

Our current younger generations, which have been dubbed Generation X and Generation Y, have some new tendencies when it comes to eating habits. What used to be a light midnight snack has now turned into a full meal into the late night hours. Taco Bell calls it Fourth Meal: the late night meal between dinner and breakfast.

Now, don’t think that Taco Bell came up with this idea, they just realized that people our age like to eat again after dinner. Taco Bell just trade-marked an idea that was already formed. It is only recently that businesses have noticed this trend.

It really is no surprise that our age group eats this late meal, since we stay up all hours of the night. “I’m up late at night anyways, so I just eat again,” says Clayton Bennet, a freshman.

This late night meal has not just been noticed by Taco Bell. In fact, most every fast food restaurant in the US is open until at least midnight. Many McDonalds, including the one in Cornelia, are open 24 hours. At other restaurants, if the main dining room is not open, at least the drive-thru is open until midnight or later. Even Piedmont’s new grill is open until midnight so that anyone who has a late night food craving can get some good food for a decent price.

But it is not necessarily a 4th meal. Many people, especially college students, do not often eat breakfast, or eat a very light one. Sophomore Tomas Montilla says “I don’t get a chance to eat breakfast everyday. So some nights, I go eat a third meal at like ten or eleven.”

For those of us who usually eat breakfast, we are not really eating any extra food. Actually we eat about the same amount, just evenly distributed over four meals instead of three. And it turns out that doing this might actually be healthier, as long as you do not eat too close to when you go to bed. In fact, based on a 2001 study conducted by a group of doctors at Emory, people should eat four to six smaller meals each day. The study goes on to report that eating smaller meals will help to raise body metabolism.

Whether or not it is truly healthy is debatable, but whether or not it will be a new meal that is here to stay is not a question.

In the next couple of years, these young generations who are used to eating a late meal, will be finally getting good salaried jobs where they can afford to eat at more expensive fancier restaurants. I believe that when these generations get to this point, you will see these four- and five- star restaurants open for another meal between 10pm and midnight.