William Atkins
Friday, 04 September 2009 20:25
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
According to a Northwestern University study, people who have irregular eating habits are more prone to gain weight. Do you wake up in the middle of the night and go straight to the refrigerator? Do you work a swing shift? Do you skip breakfast?
The research study comes out of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology (
CSCB), within Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.
The conclusion of the study is published in the journal
Obesity, the official journal of The Obesity Society.
Its authors, Deanna M. Arble, Joseph Bass, Aaron D. Laposky, Martha H. Vitaterna, and Fred W. Turek, published their article “
Circadian Timing of Food Intake Contributes to Weight Gain” on September 3, 2009, in the online version of the journal.
Their study focuses on energy regulation (eating at regular times throughout the day in order to control caloric intake and energy production) and the circadian clock of humans (the approximate 24-hour cycle of living organisms for their physiological, behavioral, and biochemical processes, for example, the time of day when bowel movements are most likely, when alertness is at its highest or lowest, and when blood pressure is at its highest or lowest).
From the abstract to their paper, the researchers wanted to find out:
“… the role of the circadian phase of food consumption in weight gain.”
The researchers studied nocturnal mice (those normally active during the night) fed a high-fat diet either during times of daylight (the 12-hour light phase) or during times of darkness (the 12-hour dark phase).
Page two contains the conclusion of the study. What group of mice gained more weight: the mice eating at night (during their normal eating period) or mice eating during the day (when they normally are asleep)?
