Three meals a day is best way

When you're a Very Important Person you are likely to attend lots of functions, where there are sandwiches, cakes, drinks and savouries.

I caught up with newly-minted Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott over Friday and Saturday, at the Waitangi Day celebrations and then at Martinborough Fair. On both occasions, Mr Scott was "working", although no doubt enjoying the Waitangi Day weekend. On Saturday he had his National Party rosette attached; he clearly wasn't planning on being incognito.

I asked him if he had lost weight, what with the big job and all; he said he was pretty much the same. But he passed on an interesting slice of life for those who are new in the job at Parliament: it's not uncommon for new MPs to gain weight. The reason for that is, there's so much food on offer.

When you're a Very Important Person you are likely to attend lots of functions, where there are sandwiches, cakes, drinks and savouries. As editor, I can relate to that slightly. On Friday I was a guest of the Wairarapa Racing Club, ready to congratulate the winner of the Wairarapa Times-Age 1000m maiden. There were quite a few snacks on in the committee room, and I confess I indulged.

But I don't get trotted out as much as an MP. Mr Scott said, to avoid putting on 5 or 10kg, he was told a basic axiom: never eat standing up.

It is, perhaps, one of the most sensible rules I've heard. It is basically a metaphor for sticking to your three meals a day, and not snacking. But for MPs this is hugely practical, with the aforementioned functions, plus subsidised meals at Bellamy's Restaurant in Parliament.

How many of us literally hold to the concept of just three meals a day, with nothing in between? Our lives are complex, we're a nation of snackers thanks to convenience food. That's perhaps acceptable with teenagers who constantly open the fridge door and peer in, if they're burning the energy. But we now know New Zealand is one of the most obese nations in OECD. We snack, and unfortunately we snack too much, and on things which have too much sugar. Could the solution be as simple as holding to those three meals a day?