History of meal times and number of meals consumed makes for a fascinating study. They differ greatly from culture to culture and through all the ages of time. The socioeconomic class of those eating plays a major factor in eating practices, both in the past and the breakfast.

Let’s start with breakfast, a repast considered by nutritional experts to be the most important meal of the day. Among English speakers "breakfast" refers to the meal taken after rising from a night’s sleep. The word literally refers to breaking the fasting period of the prior night. The first use of the word "breakfast" in English was in 1463.

Eating breakfast began in the Neolithic (late stone age) era, when large stones were used to grind grains to make a sort of porridge.

During the Middle Ages, barley and hops were used to make beer which was served to hungry peasants in the morning, alongside porridge. The Roman army had a form of porridge each morning to start their day’s march. O...