Things are finally settling down. We actually have a full week without interruption.
And while we all love vacation, it’s great to get back to a routine.
Routines are actually super important for health.
In Chinese medicine we really focus on the importance of dietary routines in creating digestive health and in laying the groundwork for general health, energy levels, and overall vitality.
Eating regular meals, at regular times, supports good digestion.
So making sure to eat breakfast, lunch , and supper, is important.
What and how much you eat at each meal may matter too.
Folk wisdom in many societies recommends eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.
More modern versions of this wisdom – like chrononutrition – focus on adjusting the type of food and the timing of it to your own personal internal clock or circadian rhythm.
The next important part of meal timing is actually NOT eating.
Leaving time in between meals allows your body time to digest the food from the previous meal and build up an appetite for the next meal.
Allowing your body to prepare for the next meal generates a stronger digestion – for example – better secretion of gastric juices to properly digest the next meal.
Experts recommend leaving around 4-5 hours between meals.
Finishing a small dinner early in the evening and allowing at least 3 hours between the end of the meal and going to sleep will help improve sleep.
Some experts advocate TRE – time restricted eating or intermittent fasting. They recommend leaving a large window between yesterday’s dinner and today’s breakfast. The idea is to collapse your digestion time into a smaller window during the day.
I personally recommend trying to leave at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast.
Advocates of TRE claim that it is effective for reducing obesity and cardiometabolic syndrome which includes diabetes, dyslipidemia, & high blood pressure and carries with it a risk for heart attack and stroke.
The American Heart Association came out with a paper evaluating meal timing and frequency. Their conclusions included recommending eating a regular breakfast to reduce obesity and eating an early dinner to reduce cardiometabolic risk. To see that paper click here.
So here’s to returning to or creating a nutritional routine – based on timing and circadian rhythms. It’s an important step in improving your health!
