 | |
Did you know that we all have a food clock? Scientists use this term to refer to the body's food-entrainable oscillator, or collection of genes and molecules that work in concert to maintain normal metabolic function. This clock can be altered by changes in eating habits. These changes include eating to excess at atypical times. A study conducted by University of California, San Francisco researchers has found that a protein known as PKCγ resets the clock.
According to researcher Louis Ptacek, "Understanding the molecular mechanism of how eating at the "wrong" time of the day desynchronizes the clocks in our body can facilitate the development of better treatments for disorders associated with night-eating syndrome, shift work and jet lag." Our food clock is important as its function is to anticipate our eating habits in order to maximize nutritional intake. Discovering how this clock works may help scientists to better understand disorders such as diabetes and obesity.
Learn more about this study, see:
- How Excess Holiday Eating Disturbs Your 'Food Clock' (Science Daily)
Comments