My morning is going well. I’m a couple of hours into whatever I am doing, and I am getting stuff done. I should be able to fit in another couple of hours of study or work before I have a lunch break. Then a wave of hunger hits me. I’m suddenly starving and wishing it was lunchtime already. I’m daydreaming dizzily about getting a plate of hot noodles. It’s becoming difficult to focus on my work. I might have to give in and eat my packed lunch early.

Why do I always get hungry at 11am? I don’t skip breakfast. In fact, usually I eat a huge breakfast of eggs and beans on toast. This massive breakfast seems to have no bearing on those 11am hunger pangs. I don’t think they’re boredom related, because though I often find myself looking for distractions throughout the day, 11am is the only time of day during which I experience this strong craving for food.

A dietitian’s explanation for this phenomenon is that it’s pretty normal for people to get hungry 3 or 4 hours after their last meal. I guess I get up and eat breakfast pretty early, so by 11am my body is ready for some more energy to keep me going. It only seems really early because of social norms around when lunch should be eaten. A quick Google search tells me that I am not alone in this. There are other people out there who also get hungry well before lunchtime. Where are you all? [Editor’s note: I eat lunch at 11:30am every day – Ben] Is everyone just sitting around, too afraid to admit that they are hungry, waiting in misery for the arbitrary food-eating time to finally arrive?

New rule: either we make 11am the new lunchtime, or we take inspiration from hobbit culture and introduce ‘second breakfast’. Either is fine by me.