George Carlin made a career out of examining our language and the words we curiously put together – I remember a whole commentary on food including “jumbo shrimp”.
Carlin also came up with a list of the 7 dirty words you can’t say on TV.
If I created a list of dirty nutrition words, “grazing” would be near the top. I think grazing is just an excuse for eating mindlessly all day long.
The idea sprouted when research suggested that when we skip meals our metabolism reacts in response. The rate at which 
you burn calories decreases if you go too long between meals. Your body begins to think, I noticed there was no breakfast today, how about if there is also NO LUNCH! Let me slow myself down and conserve energy by burning fewer calories. And it does.
This idea was then erroneously interpreted to mean that the converse was true: the more times you ate, the faster your metabolism ran and the more calories you burned. Not true.
Calories still matter – eat fewer calories to lose weight. Eating more times daily, especially when there is no real plan, means you will be tempted to make not-so-smart choices throughout the day.
Meals tend to be intentional, structured and balanced are more likely to be healthy. Think of making a meal and I’m guessing you at least thought of including a fruit or a vegetable (notice I didn’t say served). But say, “snack” and the food group becomes chips, cookies, soft drinks, energy bars…
Do not skip meals, but do not graze to be well.
Marcia
PS What word would you put in a 7 Dirty Nutrition Word list?
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