Eating meals in time with your destination a day before you fly ‘CURES jet lag’
SWITCHING meal times could help beat jet lag, scientists claim.
In the first study of its kind, researchers found when we eat impacts on our body’s internal body clock.
In tests, having meals later seemed to help shift it earlier.
Experts said matching when you eat to the time at your destination they day before travel could aid recovery.
For example, having dinner five hours earlier before flying back from US.
Scientists predict altering eating times could help shift-workers and jet-lagged flyers re-synchronise their body clock faster.
Current treatments include light therapy and caffeine pills.
Lead researcher Dr Jonathan Johnston, from the University of Surrey said: “From our findings we would predict that changing your meals to match the time in your destination could help with jet lag.
“So if you are flying back home from the US, try and eat closer to the time you normally would in Britain.
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“It has been shown that regular jet lag and shift work have adverse effects on the body, including metabolic disturbances.
“Altering meal times can reset the body clocks regulating sugar metabolism in a drug free way.
“This will help us design feeding regimes to reduce the risk of developing health problems such as obesity and cardiovascular disease in people with disturbed circadian rhythms.”
The study, published in the journal Current Biology, involved 10 volunteers who were given three meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In the first part of the trial, breakfast was given 30 minutes after waking, with later meals at five hour intervals.
In the second part, the first meal was given five hours after waking.
So if you are flying back home from the U.S., try and eat closer to the time you normally would in Britain
Dr Jonathan Johnston
Tests show pushing back eating times delayed aspects of the body clock.
Jet lag tends to kick in on journeys that involve travelling across more than three time zones.
So by moving our body clock earlier, it could make a transatlantic flight to the US. less painful.
Also known as circadian rhythms, our internal timings are governed by a “master clock” in the brain that governs the release of sleep hormones.
But disruptions - by working shifts or jet lag – are known to increase the risk of various cancers, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and even Alzheimer’s.
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