When You Eat Matters

It’s not all what you eat, but when you eat it that might lead to weight gain, according to a new laboratory study. In the study, the Northwestern University researchers fed two groups of mice a high fat-diet: one group ate only during the day and the other only at night. Mice are normally nocturnal and consume less during the day and more at night.

After six weeks, the daytime eaters gained significantly more weight than the nighttime eaters, that is the mice eating at odds with their normal sleep/wake cycle gained more. The daytime eating mice were slightly less active and ate slightly more than the nighttime eaters, note the authors, which may have led to a cumulative effect. The results show that simply modifying eating times may affect body weight and suggests that the body’s natural 24-hour circadian rhythm may play a role in metabolic processes.

And on the topic of what you eat, the National Cancer Institute recently estimated that Americans consume 22 teaspoons of sugar per day (355 calories), on average. Imagine the health improvement, weight reduction and reduced cost on the health care system if everyone reduced that number by half!

There's a new recipe for Squash Supreme on our website, to view it click here.

Yours in health,

Pamela