Our diet, exercise and sleep-wake pattern are three important factors regulating biological clock which are also mentioned in Ayurved as Ahar, Vihar and Nidra respectively. Today we will talk about diet or Ahar. There are various diet plans available in the market and we try them randomly which may work in the beginning or may work only for certain duration only. I am going to tell you about the Chronoprakriti diet plan which is not just another diet plan but altogether different approach of weight management.
Here, I am going to tell you
the basis of diet regimen which is not focusing on how many calories to eat but
more concerned about when to eat those required calories. If you ask any
dietician or physician about Chronoprakriti diet plan they will simply reject
it out of ignorance. Even though a lay person is aware about importance of
doing thing at appropriate time, scientifically it is still not validated why
an appropriate time of doing everything matters.
Fortunately, experimental
data is also coming up to support this age old notion of doing right things at
right time. A laboratory mice feed with high calorie diet during night time is
not gaining weight but become obese if it is provided during the day time. As
mice is a nocturnal animal, night time is the natural activity time and food
intake during activity time is not adding any fat deposition. If we take clue
from this experiment then we can understand that for humans, day time calorie
intake associated with physical activity will not add any weight gain.
Chronoprakriti diet
recommends to have 5 hours gap between two day time meals and 12 hours gap
between dinner and breakfast. There should not be any snacking in between and
only water may be allowed during the gap. This five hours gap will ensure that
the metabolic clock will be synchronized to their daily rhythm and 12 hours gap
will ensure that the gut microbiome will be sufficiently rested and rejuvenated
for next cycle. This three meal pattern at consistent time of the day is
recommended to tune your chronoprakriti.
Chronoprakriti diet plan
will become personalized based on your chronoprakriti assessment. Your prakriti
will decide which type of food you should prefer or avoid depending upon your
age, season, geographical location and prevalent health condition. Your
chronotype will decide whether you should have large breakfast or large lunch
or large dinner.
Seasonal and local food products induces changes in the metabolism due to the particular phenolic profile that the product contains hence the Chronoprakriti diet insists on seasonal and local variety of food products in your diet.
Even though we stick to this diet plan for weekdays and change it for weekends then body will experience what is called ‘metabolic jet lag’ Even without travelling to different time zone, your gut microbiome will experience the change in food intake that will disturb their rhythm and it will be take time to regain it.
So we should have consistent food timing on all days as much as possible. If it happens that due to social obligations, there is a change in meal pattern, it is recommended to fast next day to readjust the metabolic clock. Weekly fasting is highly recommended to keep your metabolic clock healthy.
Our body is not made for 24x7 food intake. Due to
availability of processed food round the clock our eating window is almost
equivalent to our waking hours and that is creating all types of health issues.
Our aim should be finishing a food intake in specific time span which should be
less than 12 hours. If we could keep our digestive tract empty for at least
13-14 hrs then our peripheral clocks can tune themselves easily and help process
excess nutrients properly by the body.
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