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).

It just doesn't sound particularly healthy to be chasing snacks/ carbs all the time.
I feel so much better since I started 16:8
Bags of energy sleep better,lost 2 stone but the best bit is what it's done for my MH
No cravings, thinking about food, bargaining etc
Each to their own !

Breakfast 7.30
Lunch (light meal) 12.30
Supper (proper meal) 6.30

If main meal is 12.30, it's dinner and the light meal later is tea, which is how my parents arrange it. Christmas LUNCH does not exist in any sane universe.

Fair enough
If you have a medical need to eat carbs regularly then so be it .
For the average non diabetic person it's not healthy

We ate tea as the main meal of the day - no supper. Dinner is only used for an event (Xmas/Sunday)

Sorry didn't explain that well. But if we went out and ordered steak and chips at lunch time then had something small later the steak and chips would still be lunch and then the something small would be a small tea or you'd skip tea and just have a snack. The steak and chips wouldn't become dinner

if i invite my family for a meal, that is what i say
come round for a meal.

I grew up in the North, for me dinner is the meal 12-2 ish and tea is 5-6ish.
I moved down South and had kids... for them lunch is 12-2ish and dinner is 5-6ish. As far as they are concerned tea is a hot drink! Endless confusion in our house!🤣

Personally, I don't think there is much point to discussing this too in depth really. As names for different meals, and types of meal, vary not just by region, but from family to family. There are so many combinations and variations, that you will never come up with a definitive set of names.

Lancashire

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

Yes exactly this down to the location 😃

Where did I say I was 'chasing snacks/carbs all the time' though?
I'm not craving anything, not thinking about food (other than when I make meal plans, shopping lists or cook), I am not bargaining either. I have a way of eating which works for me, just like you have. Stop using negative language just because you do something different.

I didn't say I had a medical need to eat carbs or that I was diabetic!
Understanding insulin action etc doesn't only come from being diabetic, it can come from actually studying and working within the field!
You are assuming.

As I understand it:

Tea down south (low tea): cucumber sandwiches and jam and cream scones and earl grey eaten in the late afternoon with the ladies from book club, conversation permeated with tinkly laughs and subtle one-upmanship.

Tea up north (high tea): sausage and egg and chips and cheese and beans on toast eaten in the early evening, while shouting answers at The Chase with your nan.

I’m Northern too. And this is exactly what I would have written.

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

If my DP asked if I’d like some tea, I’d expect him to come out of the kitchen with a nice hot drink, possibly with a biscuit but definitely not a meal

Either my diabetes nurse is wrong about carbs and diabetes or you are.

It's not healthy for diabetics to regularly eat carbs.

It might not be healthy for the average non diabetic person either, but that seems to vary from person to person.

Breakfast, lunch & dinner
I'm from London

Or actually what I was referring to was in a different context of PP saying she feels shaky/ sick so potentially a hypo.
PP has said that's not the case though.

We all need some degree of carbohydrates, preferably complex ones, agree that outcomes are variable.

I'm not replying further as PP apparently works in the same field but magically her "scientific" knowledge flies in the face of the current and ongoing research.
Cancer research particularly compellingly and predictions are catastrophic sadly.

My Mum was a Sussex farmer's daughter. As children in Kent, we had high tea. A savoury, either cooked breakfasty stuff, or cold like a slice of ham and minimal salad, followed by bread and butter to which we applied jam or cheese triangles, and cake. Occasional scones, also jammed, no cream.
I don't have the appetite now, and it's a bit carby, but reading this thread has made me hanker for that sort of spread. (There used to be flavoured cheese triangles, tomato, celery and such.)
I used to think one could exist on a latish breakfast, porridge, fry up, or kipper, or smoked haddock, toast and marmalade, and a high tea, with maybe a mixed grill for the protein bit.
Couldn't eat either of them now.
Raw oats with berries and Benecol yoghurt, egg mayo sandwich lunch, half a portion of fish and chips supper.

Dad had a meal in a restaurant, and then a supper when he got in, beans on toast sort of thing. We didn't have a dinner type meal in the evening, but midday at the weekends. Can't remember what we called it! Two courses, all hands to the pump to serve it.

No, but I love the fact you said luncheon

Breakfast, lunch, dinner here - if dinner was a smaller meal I’d say supper.

Tea is afternoon tea or a drink

Brunch is madness

high tea is a late afternoon/ early evening meal, usually for people - eg kids, some manual workers - that have their main meal at lunch. It contains savoury food like ham or fishfingers or whatever. It’s a bit piecemeal like lunch can be because the main meal was earlier.

It’s not afternoon tea - which lots of people would just call tea, because their evening meal is dinner/supper

I’m from south america
We have:

Breakfast early in the morning: latte, bread, eggs, cheese, ham, fruit juice and maybe a smoothie (speacially children)

Lunch: main meal, never before 12 and never after 2m (unless something catastrophic happened): a combination of grains (rice, beans) or pasta, always with red or white meat and always with cooked veggies and raw salad, always fresh fruit juice too - generally no desserts unless it is weekends or special occasion but fruit salad or one piece of fruit such as banana, pineaple, orange may follow

Dinner: lighter meal from around 5pm until 8pm latest depending if snacked were eaten in the afternoon: usually soup with bread or light sandwiches or ommeletes, or couscous - less meat than at lunch time or no meat al all - again washed down with fruit juices, or flavoured warm milk or smoothie

Before bed: herbal tea

I miss this routine above but can’t make it work on the UK

I've never met anyone who would call the evening meal "tea" outside of MN, or even know that meaning.

Me neither.

A tea ☕️ is a drink. And dinner is an evening meal.

Definitely isn't. I am a Londoner as is DH and we both call our evening meal tea.