Meal names and times

[ODFOx]

I know it's been done to death but the issue has reared its ugly head again on another thread.
I am a Northerner who went to school in the south ( in case that affects anything).
Dinner is not eaten at a specific time of day. It is the largest/most formal/main meal of the day but can be eaten at any time.
All the other meal names are time dependent:
Breakfast (first meal of the day when you break your overnight fast)
Morning coffee/elevenses (obvious)
Luncheon ( always eaten in the middle of the day)
Tea ( at teatime: may be an afternoon tea and or a high tea)
Supper (last meal of the day eaten mid-late evening.

Not all meals are compulsory and some may be blended (eg Brunch) .

When lunch is the main meal of the day it may be described as dinner (school dinner, Sunday dinner, Christmas dinner). When tea and supper are combined into a main meal then a large evening meal may be described as dinner.

It may not be necessary to call any meal dinner if you choose to label meals based on time of day.

So I think that the divide between those who call their evening meal dinner or tea is less to do with geography and more to do with whether or not their parents had an early evening meal followed by a later snack supper or if they had a big meal and nothing later.

Does that make sense to anyone but me? DH says that I'm overthinking 😀 and that no one cares, but I've been on MN long enough to know that someone cares (apart from me).

I only work 3 days a week but 5.30 is way too early for me.
Even on days off I eat 7pm , bed 10pm

It's not really good to be eating stuff late at night either .

I agree that the main meal of the day is dinner, whatever time it is eaten.

Tea is a light/snack meal eaten in the evening if you've already had your dinner at lunchtime!

Lunch is a light/snack meal eaten in the middle of the day. Although Sunday/Christmas lunch is the exception here.

Supper isn't a meal, but might be a later snack if dinner is eaten early.

Breakfast is breakfast.

That's fine for you though, we're all different. Not sure why it's such an issue!

I don't eat late at night either, I don't eat after dinner and I go to bed well before 10.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks between meals if any (midmorning, afternoon).
Tea is the drink not a meal in my household but I get the gist when others use it to mean dinner.
Supper is late night after dinner but we don't eat this

I was describing the joyless attitude of my GP

It was very functional and rushed.
I love cooking, sometimes it takes a while , sometimes 20 mins stirfry etc.
I like to relax and take my time.

Breakfast, lunch, supper. I'm a southerner.

I don't use dinner in everyday life, but I would say "we're going out for dinner" to describe an evening meal in a restaurant.

Also I don't use tea in everyday life. It would mean afternoon tea with scones if I did say it.

I have a big dinner 6 to 7pm and then in bed by 9pm. Wake up around 6am.
Breakfast at 8, lunch between 12 to 2pm depending on hunger.

Was
Breakfast
Dinner - around noon
Tea - around 6pm
Northerner

Now
Breakfast
Lunch - around 1pm
Dinner - around 7.15pm
Same Northerner now 😀married to Southerner.

Same. Londoner

Breakfast: 6 to 8am ish
Lunch: 12 to 2 ish.
Dinner/Tea: 5 to 7 ish.
Supper: 9 ish - we don't always have this but it's a light snack (eg toast) at least couple hours after dinner.

I don't mean that it takes 2 hours for the meal, but that's the rough time point I'd expect to have it.

I'll never get used to people referring to the 12 ish to 2 ish meal as dinner, because it simply isn't dinner imho, but I get that it is a regional thing.

Scottish

Breakfast
Lunch
Tea

If the main meal is at lunchtime it would be

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

@Infusedwithchamomileandmint
'Why on earth do people eat supper before bed?
Are they going into hibernation? 😂'

We have dinner around 5/5.30, if I don't have supper/a small snack a bit later (9 ish) then I won't have eaten for at least 12 -13 hours by breakfast, and wake up feeling 'hungry' sick at 6.30 ish. I prefer to eat smaller amounts more often and don't have a huge dinner. I don't always have a proper sit down supper but I do tend to have a small snack of some sort.

I only eat 12-8pm

Interesting because when I ate breakfast / snacks I felt constantly hungry/ dizzy/ nauseated .
Since changing I realised the sick feeling was my blood sugar going up and down

I was brought up by a northerner who was a bit snobbish. So we had breakfast and lunch and either tea or dinner (depending on when we ate it). Tea for me is an early dinner, possibly something like beans on toast or a meal that the children eat at 5pm. Supper was always a snack later in the evening like cereal or toast.

When I moved south and started mixing with more upper class people it became clear to me that supper (for them) was their evening meal. At some stage people started talking about kitchen supper.

I still refer to the evening meal as dinner and can't bring myself to call it supper. I'd never refer to a meal eaten during the day as dinner. It's always lunch. I no longer eat supper and I don't refer to the snacks my teens eat as supper either. I might though call a really late dinner, supper.

Well, I'm sure you probably have a snack of some sort between lunch and your dinner?

So maybe lunch at 1, snack at 4, dinner at 7, bed at 10.

Or others might do lunch at 1, dinner at 5, snack at 9, bed at 10.

It's no different really.

I absolutely love going to bed on a comfortably full stomach, pure bliss. I'd rather skip breakfast and lunch than dinner. Can't sleep hungry. That's just on the subject of eating dinner too early and needing a snack after 😅 i definitely would eat again if I'm still up at 11pm or midnight.

Breakfast.7-8
Dinner 12-1
Tea 5-6

Glad that works for you.
I know what works for me too, and have a science background so am happy with my choices.
I was simply pointing out that eating supper does not mean one is going into hibernation.
Also, 5/5.30 for dinner suits us fine as we're all up early during the week and hungry for our main meal.

I never eat between meals-why would you be " sure"?
I eat a decent lunch and then dinner at 7pm

The point is its your blood sugar crashing that drives you to eat toast at bedtime otherwise you wake up feeling sick ( low blood sugar)
That how insulin resistance develops

Hibernation was tongue in cheek 🙄

Each to their own - your way sounds awful to me, mine might sound awful to you. That's ok!

I live in the north, but I don't see that as relevant.
I know it is breakfast, lunch and dinner. But I grew up in a lower-middle family and we always called the last meal "tea", so I often still use that at home. I like to think I'm being ironic/sarcastic, but actually it's just a hard habit to break.
My parents used to have "supper" - coffee & a piece of cake- at about 9pm..... that's definitely too old-school. I know that "supper" is just a smarter way of saying dinner, but I don't move in those circles.
Brunch is Anerican, so I'd just say late breakfast.
It's sad that the word "luncheon" has dropped out of favour, tbh.
It make me wince when people talk about "dinner" at lunchtime tho!
Of course, this is all about social class, which Musnet hates 😂

I've never met anyone who would call the evening meal "tea" outside of MN, or even know that meaning. English isn't my first language, but I've made it my pet research.
When I say no-one, it includes my English teacher (American) and work colleagues (London, Australia, NorthAm). I was nearly convinced it must be a MN group trolling thing.

Few months ago I was binge listening Harry Potter books, and there it was. In Half blood prince, Dursleys ask vomiting Dudley, whether "Mrs Polkiss had served something foreign for tea"?
So it exists. Probably. Of JKR is part of the MN group trolling thing.

Without outing myself, you definitely do not need to educate me on how insulin works or how blood sugar is regulated overall or how my diet/eating works perfectly well for me.

@ZiriForGood I believe tea is a northern England thing.