Taste sensations in humans lend to follow a circadian (24 hour) pattern, as do nearly all of our important bodily functions. Although you may not be able to change the rhythm of your taste sensations, it is possible to change the time of day that they are the strongest by training yourself to experience the urge to eat at a different hour of the day. About 15 years ago, researchers at Columbia University demonstrated that overweight persons were greatly influenced by the apparent time. When locked up in an experimental room where the clock could be manipulated, obese people ate more in response to time registered on the clock rather than to the actual time of day. They experienced a greater urge to eat when they thought that dinner time had already passed, when, in fact, it was only early afternoon. It should thus be apparent to you that planning scheduled eating can have an important desirable effect on your urge to eat.
Many overweight persons start out each day with a strong determination to “diet.” They will usually delay eating as long as possible, frequently skipping breakfast, having none or only a very light lunch, and then eating freely during dinner and especially afterwards. Once this pattern becomes established, they rarely experience any hunger during the daylight hours, but it assumes problematic proportions during the evening hours. Add to that the fact that food is more readily available and that most people are generally less occupied in the evening than during the day. Thus, it becomes more difficult to distract one’s thoughts away from food once nibbling has begun. Under these circumstances controlling food intake becomes notably troublesome. To achieve freedom from such preoccupation with food during the evening hours, it is helpful to set up a regimen of eating only at specified times. By following such a schedule for several weeks, you can condition your body to expect food only at certain hours of the day. Since our bodies are regulated by patterns of consistency, an intensive training effort to achieve such a new regulated pattern of consistency will eventually lead to evenings that are free of the urge to eat.
Dr. Albert Stunkard, an eminent researcher in the field of obesity, found that two out of three dieters reported that they overate mostly at night. In another study it was shown that 50% of obese persons could not stop eating after sunset. They all had a number of common manifestations. They nearly always skipped breakfast, nibbled only for lunch, ate a hearty dinner, and consistently reported that they had a strong aversion early in the day to the very same foods they found so irresistible after dinner. It appeared that skipping meals earlier during the day paved the way for food cravings at night.
There are a number of explanations for this phenomenon. Dinner tends to stimulate the taste buds, activate the sensation of food entering the stomach, and exercise the muscles used for chewing. This coupled with the attitue4d “I have been good all day, so I deserve an extra treat” leads to an intake far in excess of actual energy needs. Because foods taste better after an all day deprivation, there is a heightened taste sensitivity which makes self-control irksome and painful.
There are often also fewer social controls (most eating is done privately), and food becomes the only source of stimulation. Loneliness and boredom are less likely to be present during the morning hours when the anticipation of the day’s activities acts as a diversion from food. Thus, this combination of events can easily result in one’s eating getting out of hand after dark. This is compounded by a desperate and feeble attempt by the dieter to “pay back” his previous night’s transgressions by skipping breakfast and maybe lunch the following day – and, the whole vicious cycle is repeated once more.
In a study of obese binge eaters, three out of five persons reported bingeing on days they had skipped breakfast and lunch: one our of four persons binged on days they skipped breakfast; and only one person in eight binged on days when they had eaten all three meals. So, in order to gain control over such apparently unmanageable episodes of YOU SHOULD START WITH A GOOD BREAKFAST!
To prevent the 11 a.m. blahs, studies at the State University of Iowa have shown that breakfast should provide about 25% of the day’s protein and calorie allowances. A wholesome combination of foods is digested and absorbed gradually into the bloodstream over a period of several hours and avoids the undesirable effects of refined carbohydrates which usually make up the “quickie” breakfast (e.g., doughnuts and coffee). The rush of sugar-energy and nervous stimulation of caffeine may well exaggerate the letdown that invariably follows. Allowing sufficient time for this meal is a lifestyle change well worth developing. Let your physician or dietitian help you plan a nutritious initial meal of the day. That’s what a GOOD BREAKFAST is all about! Generally, in most people, omitting breakfast has not shown to be of any value for long term weight control.