CHRONONUTRITION
ARE YOU DIETING? YOU MUST WATCH NOT ONLY WHAT YOU EAT BUT ALSO WHEN TO EAT
“To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals” - Proverb
Emerging scientific evidence on diet and nutrition point to the fact that not only what we eat, but also when we eat makes all the difference for our weight and our health.
As humans created to live on a spinning planet on its own axis, as well as the axis around the sun; thereby creating day and night, and also a four-season cycle. We are awake and active at daytime, sleep and rest during the night. This is called “circadian rhythm.” Our biological clock is created and strictly controlled by chemical signals from our brain and body that makes us sleep and rest at certain times at night and to be awake and active in the daytime.
Our body needs more food calories and energy when we are awake and active, than when we are ready to go asleep and rest. That is why we should eat more when we are awake and are physically and metabolically active.
Our body also has “food clock” for the same purpose. Our brain and our body produce chemicals that makes us hungry when we need more food energy and the satiety feeling when we don’t need extra calories. We should synchronize our food consumption with these important internal physiological clocks so that our weight is stabilized, and we become heathier.
Therefore, the best time to eat is when we are awake and active. Like many of us do, skipping breakfast, having a light lunch and loading for dinner is a very bad idea. Eating a heavy dinner and/or late night snacks are harmful in two ways. First, every organ system must rest during sleep. If there is food in the stomach, it must work to digest it during the night. This creates discordance in body physiology and indigestion. Secondly, because our physical activities and metabolism are down and slow during the night, consumed extra calories would not be utilized, but converted into fat and deposited in fat cells, thereby opening the path for weight gain, obesity and related health problems.
According to Darwinian evolution and the theory of “survival of the fittest,” our ancient ancestors’ food sources were available depending on four seasons, in a “feast-or-famine” format. Only those who could gain excess weight during the feast season could survive the famine season and becoming the survival of the fittest. Eventually, this genetic trend passed to the next generation. Thus, we all have this genetic trend to gain weight, if we overeat as well as eat at the wrong time of the day.
