Does Circadian Eating Help People Like It Does Animals? EAT RIGHT TO SLEEP TIGHT. BATON Diet Blog 6
The Gill and Panda Study of 156 People “Living in the Wild”
Part 1 of the Gill and Panda Study
The Panda Labs at the Salk Institute researchers found very few studies had been published on when people eat. As we know people do not have very consistent eating schedules in our modern culture.
- The first question that had to be answered was when do people eat?
- The second question was can changing the time people eat impact health?
- The third question was if it works, will people be willing to change when they eat for the long-term? And will the results of the health changes hold up over time?
At first a little discouraging news came to the researchers when they started asking people when they ate. Most people said they were eating 3 meals a day in a 12-hour window.
However, when the same people were given a smart phone app and asked to take a picture just before eating a revelation occurred. Gill S, Panda S. 2015 Cell Metabolism (2029)
People recorded when they ate and took a picture of what they ate. They recorded when they exercised, and when they slept.
“Surprisingly, in contrast to the self-reported 3 meals/day structure of meals from most of the participants, a breakfast-lunch-dinner temporal pattern was largely absent....At the individual level, the number of events per day showed wide variation…” Gill S, Panda S. 2015 Cell Metabolism (2029)
9 out of 10 people were eating more than 12 hours per day.
(2029)
1 of 2 people were eating more than 15 hours per day. (2029)
“When our eyes are open our mouths are open.”
“In summary, there is a systematic bias toward consuming a larger portion of the daily caloric intake toward the late afternoon and evening hours…in general, food consumed after 6:36 p.m. exceeded the maintenance calories requirement.” Gill S, Panda S. 2015 Cell Metabolism (2029)
Typical eating events patterns for people were shown on a 24-hour clock. Each mark on the 24-hour clock represented one eating event. Shown here is a sample of the type of eating patterns for 6 typical people in the study. Half of the people in the study were eating unless they were sleeping.
This is a change from past generations who lived with food insecurity/scarcity and without electricity and refrigerators. With electricity for perpetual light and plentiful food for round the clock eating we can upset the natural genetic circadian design resulting in disruption of the synchrony between our body clocks and our brain master clock.
Part 2 of Gill and Panda Study
8 Overweight People Eat During 10 Hours Per Day
Plan:
Researchers asked 8 overweight or obese people from part 1 of the study, who
were not shift workers, and who were eating for more than 14.75 hours per day, if they would like to participate in a study to determine the health effects of circadian time restricted eating.
Each person was allowed to choose their own 10 hour eating window. Then they would water fast for 14 hours at night.
No restrictions on calories or types of foods were placed. (2029)
Results after 16 weeks:
The people lost 4.4% bodyweight.
They had unintentionally and naturally reduced the amount (calories) of food they ate.
They reported less hunger at bedtime.
People felt more energetic in the morning and had more overall energy.
People voluntarily continued circadian eating (TRE or time restricted eating). (2029, 2068)
After the Gill and Panda initial study was completed, researchers followed up one
year later and discovered to their surprise that people had voluntarily continued time restricted eating (TRE) to support their circadian rhythm. A bonus was that they had maintained their weight loss on their own one year later. When these people were asked why they chose to continue circadian eating, their answers were not any of the benefits discovered by the research but instead were new benefits of circadian time restricted eating (TRE) that once again surprised the researchers in Panda Labs at the Salk Institute. (2029, 2068)
People in the Panda study made their own discoveries about sleep and revealed them to researchers.
Eat Right to Sleep Tight
People said the primary reason they continued circadian eating was because their sleep improved, and they woke up feeling more rested and energetic. (2029)
People are desperate for shut-eye.
“Sleeplessness has a long and tortured history.A 15th-century Italian lawyer named Hippolytus de Marsiliis is said to have first documented sleep deprivation as a way to punish prisoners. (If you’re unconvinced by his creed, note that he is the same fellow credited with confirming the effectiveness of slow-drip water torture.) And he was only making formal what humans had known for centuries: Not getting enough sleep is painful.” (2038) (Consumer Reports 2016)
Major weight gain in women with short sleep duration (sleep trumps all)
Women who slept 7 hours gained significantly less weight than those who slept 5 or 6 hours.
Women who slept 5 hours were 1.32X or (32%) more likely to gain 33 pounds (15kg) over 16 years.
Women who slept 6 hours were 1.12X or (12%) more likely to gain 33 pounds (15kg) over 16 years.
This is major weight gain. Data in 68,183 women nurses remained significant and clear after adjustment for important confounders. Physical activity and diet intakes did not affect the relation between sleep and weight gain. Weight gain over time was greater in short duration sleepers and overnight shift workers. Short duration sleepers gained the most weight and reported less caloric intake than long duration sleepers. Food (calories) and exercise/activity had only trivial influence on weight gain. Sleeping less than 7 hours remained an independent risk factor for major weight gain. Sleeping more than 7 hours did not increase risk of obesity. Sleeping less than 7 hours predicted future weight gain. (2123)
Others have reported short duration sleep is associated with risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome. (2073, 2236-2242)
While sleep debt has been believed to not be harmful to health, studies find otherwise. “Sleep debt has a harmful impact on carbohydrate metabolism and endocrine function.” Spiegel K et al, 1999, Lancet (2242) The timing of sleep also influenced BMI. (2073) Carefully controlled laboratory studies where people are forced to work and sleep at times out of synchrony with circadian rhythm (resembling deep night shift work) resulted in an imbalance in sugar (glucose) metabolism that otherwise is seen in diabetes and metabolic syndrome. (2078)
We now know that melatonin levels are affected by both light and when we eat. Melatonin production is blunted and reduced when we eat in a window longer than 6 to 10 hours per day. Eating in a window that exceeds 10 hours disturbs sleep. (2029) While many of us have purchased red night lights for our homes and have turned off our electronic devices that generate blue light by 9 pm, most people (9 out of 10 people) are still eating for longer than 10 hours per day and we are eating the majority of our calories after 6 pm with many calories consumed after dark. Few people are allowing 6 hours for the stomach to process the last meal and empty before eating again resulting in giant metabolic traffic jams in digestion. Cognitive and behavioral therapy to teach how to improve sleep are proven therapies for sleeplessness. The suggestions are to dim room lights at 9 PM and turn off phones, text, computers, TV, lower music volume, then read an enjoyable physical copy of a book as opposed to e-book for 30 to 60 minutes prior to “lights out” at 10 PM. Additionally, the time of day that we eat profoundly impacts sleep and circadian rhythm.
On time = production and efficiency.
50% of our genome is devoted to our clocks.
Our body is like a big industrial manufacturing city that needs food raw material shipments to arrive on time, enzymes, and co-factors to show up to work on time, so our internal traffic lights to be well timed to prevent a massive traffic jam in metabolism and production. We also require quality rest time to repair and replace our body infrastructure. Disruption of our circadian clocks or imbalance between our clocks can result in low energy, accidents, injuries, and ultimately poor health. Half of our genome is clock genes.
When we eat matters as much as what we eat.
Food can be a circadian supporter or disruptor depending on timing.
Our cell and organ body clocks receive input from our master clock, but they also receive input from other sources based on their specific jobs. One example is our liver cells. Their primary timing input is from food. This is in stark contrast to our brain master clock tuned to light. Our liver is a crucial factory in our metabolism. It is easy to see if we eat at the wrong time of day our liver clocks will not remain in sync with our master brain clock. Over time such disharmony can derail health. When we eat matters as much as what we eat.
Liver clocks are synchronized to the brain master clock located in SCN (superchiasmatic nucleus) of the hypothalamus if we eat in a 6-to-10-hour window in daylight hours.
Our master clock in our brain is networked to our body clocks but, our body clocks do respond to other inputs as well as the master clock orchestration. Our master clock in the brain is primarily influenced by light exposure; our liver is more influenced by the time that we eat than by light. Our liver is a factory; its clocks are anchored more strongly to our daily eating times.
Eating for longer than 10 hours per day can result in disharmony phase shifting between gut and brain body clocks. The principal organs of the gut or gastrointestinal tract (GI) are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, liver, intestines, rectum, and anus. The liver is particularly sensitive to food intake times. Circadian disruption changes body metabolism and hormone productivity.
If we eat more than 10 hours per day, discordance between our liver clocks and our master clock sets in and then we have a problem, a massive traffic jam in metabolism. So much for late romantic candlelight dinners! They turn us into “Phantoms of the Opera”.
It is not just our liver clocks that are reset if we eat more than 10 hours per day. The entire gastrointestinal tract (GI) is turned back on to process the food. The pancreas must turn on and make insulin to process the sugars. The stomach turns on to make acids and acid reflux may ensue. The liver makes bile acids to digest the food. Bile is produced and dumped into the intestine.
Gut flora changes depending on when we eat.
Eating for longer than 10 hours per day disrupts our gut flora. Gut flora becomes less diverse blunting the production of our gut-brain connection hormones.
Melatonin, the sleep hormone, is made in the gut and production is blunted; we cannot sleep. Since much of serotonin, the happy hormone, is made in the gut we become sad and depressed. Serotonin and melatonin that would normally travel from the gut to the brain and impact our mood and sleep, become depleted or dampened. There are other gut-brain connected hormones that are disturbed as shown in the drawing above.
Food intake for a period time exceeding 6 to 10 hours per day forces extra work on digestive and other organs that typically are at rest during the deep night.
When we fast for 14 or more hours at night, the GI tract (gastrointestinal tract) is repaired and the gut lining is replaced with new cells.
During sleep we repair and replace our body infrastructure including our muscles. During fasting at night our muscles are preserved and repaired; they switch to oxidative metabolism. But not if we eat more than 10 hours per day or if we eat on the night shift at work. If we eat more than 6 to 10 hours per day our muscles waste away. Our internal body fat stores are supposed to be burned during the night, but if we eat after dark we must digest, process, and store the new batch of fat, sugar, and protein we just ate. Fatty liver disease may set in making it hard for us to process our medications or toxins and food additives. Next, someone wants to sell us some bogus “detox product”. Chronic inflammatory diseases lurk just around the bend including heart attacks, cancer, and autoimmune diseases – all are associated with circadian disturbance.
Worst of all we are hungry all the time and never satisfied after we eat. As our muscles melt away and we become exhausted and weak, finally in desperation for energy and sleep we eat another bedtime or midnight snack and gain weight.
There are no limits on calories with circadian time centered eating [time restricted eating (TRE)]. The only thing we limit is the time we eat to either a 6-, 8-, or 10-hour window during daylight hours. People do not report being hungry with eating to support circadian rhythm. In fact, they said they were less hungry at bedtime. People reported they felt well rested and more energetic. The program is easy, and it is free.
Early birds and night owls.
We will discuss the difference between early birds and night owls in our next BATON Diet blog number 7. Individuals vary in their circadian rhythms.
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Also in Baton Diet
Circadian MAX BENEFIT Eating Times or Windows BATON Diet Blog 8
EARLY BIRDS AND NIGHT OWLS Individuals Vary in Their Circadian Rhythm BATON Diet Blog 7
The human circadian clock runs a little longer than 24 hours per day.
If we are not exposed to bright light, our internal circadian rhythm is a little longer than 24 hours. Our internal circadian clock exceeds 24 hours by 15 to 30 minutes per 24 hours when we are not exposed to light. Exposure to outdoor bright light, especially in blue and green wavelength regions, resets our internal clock to be exactly 24 hours.