Washington, Dec 7 (IANS) Consuming three huge meals instead of six small ones lowered the amount of fat in women's blood and gradually decreased risk of heart disease, says a study.

"Our data suggests that, for obese women, eating fewer bigger meals may be more advantageous metabolically compared to eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day," said Tim Heden, doctoral student in Missouri University's department of nutrition and exercise physiology, who led the study.

"Eating larger meals less often lowered blood-fat levels. Over time, consistently eating fewer, larger meals each day could lower the women's blood-fat levels and thereby lower their risk of developing heart disease," added Heden, the journal Obesity reported.

Heden and other researchers studied how meal frequency affected blood-sugar and blood-fat levels in eight obese women throughout two 12-hour periods on two separate days.

All of the women consumed 1,500 calories. During the two different testing days, the participants consumed three 500-calorie liquid meals or six 250-calorie liquid meals.

Throughout the 12-hour time frames, researchers tested sugar and fat levels in the women's blood every 30 minutes.

Women who consumed three meals had significantly lower fat in their blood, according to a Missouri statement.

"The mass media and many health care practitioners often advocate eating several small meals throughout the day," Heden said.

"However, when we examined the literature, we didn't find many studies examining or supporting this popular claim. This lack of research led to our study, which is one of the first to examine how meal frequency affects insulin and blood-fat levels in obese women during an entire day of eating," concluded Heden.

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