With 35-minute lunches and 10-minute breaks, students often find themselves with limited time to eat large and full meals. However, local nutritionists and recent studies have found that eating small but frequent meals is beneficial to health.

According to Susan Machtinger, a Tiburon-based nutritionist, people often mentally perform the best when they eat smaller, more frequent meals, as opposed to less frequent but larger meals.

“Some moderate, well-timed small meals throughout the day are going to result in your best blood sugar stability,” Machtinger said.

On an average day, junior Lily Le can be found continuously snacking on healthy foods.

“Because I do a lot of physical activity, I tend to eat six to eight times a day,” Le said. “I like to balance out my metabolism.”

Machtinger also said that sustained mental aptitude is due to a stable blood sugar level.

“Stable blood sugar is going to give you the best energy,” Machtinger said. “That’s going to keep your mind the sharpest.”

According to Machtinger, eating a few large meals can have negative effects on one’s energy level.

“When you eat a big meal, you’ll get a huge spike in your blood sugar, and you’ll be very energetic, but only temporarily,” Machtinger said. “After your blood sugar spikes, it’ll fall very quickly and you’ll essentially crash.”

Machtinger said that another negative side effect of erratic blood sugar levels is increased consumption of unhealthy foods.

“When [blood sugar] wildly fluctuates, you’ll start craving the least productive foods, most often refined carbohydrates and junk foods, because you’re looking for a quick boost to get you out of the fall,” she said. “Those types of foods will cause your blood sugar to rise too quickly and then to fall very quickly and leave you feeling shaky and unable to concentrate and crabby and tired and a lot of other things that are not positive.”

Eating more frequent healthy meals has also been found to improve brain function and congitive abilities.

According to a 2009 study done by the University of Wales Institute and Cardiff University, subjects who ate four meals instead of two performed better on verbal reasoning tests as well as cognitive tasks.

Small, more frequent meals not only improve cognitive abilities, but they also have been found to more fully satiate hunger.

In a 2000 study from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School, scientists had a group of test subjects eat one single large meal, and had another group eat multiple smaller meals.

When the testers had both groups eat their next meal, they found that the group that had previously eaten a single large meal ate 27 percent more at their next meal than the group that had previously eaten multiple smaller meals. However, the self-reported hunger ratings of the test subjects were not significantly different between the two groups.

Le said that she has found that eating so frequently has not only helped her energy and cognitive abilities, but has also helped her mood.

“You’re not hungry, but you don’t get full. You’re satisfied,” she said. “When I eat well, I also feel a lot better and I’m in a really good mood. I want to get up and actually move.”

Le first decided to alter her eating pattern in order to watch her weight, due to her involvement in mixed martial arts.

Sophomore Emily Lewis has also found that frequently and eating healthily has impacted her mood and energy level.

“When I eat, I feel more awake and more aware of my surroundings and not as tired,” she said. “If I miss food or snacks, I feel tired and I can’t focus as well, which isn’t good for school.”

According to Lewis, her eating frequency and meal size also impact her athletics.

“I’m a swimmer, so eating lighter during the day helps my swimming,” Lewis said. “Then I don’t have a ton of food in my stomach, but I still feel energized enough to have a good practice.”