Matt Metzgar

Dawn's Early Light

Daylight savings time was this past weekend, and I noticed an immediate impact on my commute.  Previously, I have been leaving before dawn in order to make it to work.  Now with daylight savings time, even though I'm still leaving at the same time, it is daylight when I leave.  I noticed Monday that this made a big difference in my energy levels.  Even though I still got the same amount of sleep, I felt better getting up and making the drive in the daylight.

The simplest explanation is that I'm now closer to a natural circadian rhythym.  In ancient times, I can't think of any reason why people would get up before the sun would rise.  A colleague at work even commented on this the other day, saying it seemed very unnatural to get up in pitch black darkness and start your day.

Studies show that sleep loss is a factor in obesity.  However, I would also guess that sleeping at unnatural times (like shift work) is also related to obesity.  With the American culture becoming more 24/7, I would think that the number of people working odd shifts is increasing.  I can only assume that these unnatural work patterns will have lead to more health problems in this country.

Eat When Hungry II

Here is a neat post that argues you should not keep track of what you eat.  I wrote about this earlier this year, arguing that hunger is an effective guide to proper eating.  This is a subject that really deserves more attention. 

It's amazing how quickly people will squash the notion that the body can self-regulate its food consumption.  It is thought that in the current environment of readily-available food, a person's appetite is an inaccurate guide to proper food consumption.  It follows from this that food intake should be tightly monitored and scrutinized, since the body is not up to the task.

Some of this is true because simple carbs can throw the body's hunger out of whack.  But beyond this, why would a person's appetite lead them to overconsume food?   The research show that starvation was not common among hunter-gatherers, so it's not as if the body is programmed to "stock up" on food. 

Hunger evolved for a reason.  In a healthy body, it is a signal to consume more macro and micro nutrients.  It seems farfetched that an eating scheme designed by formulas and ratios can do better than a person's appetite which has built-in feedback and control mechanisms.  How can an externally-designed eating scheme provide exactly the right nutrients in the right amounts and at the right time to a living, dynamic organism?

If you look at wild animals, or children for that matter, they consume food in irregular patterns.  Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little - it changes meal by meal and day by day.  All of these "decisions" are really made at the physical level, and are not guided by a preconceived mental blueprint.

The body has its own wisdom, though this concept is almost universally ignored by modern diets.  If you remove unnatural foods from your diet, the odds are your body will guide you to the proper foods in the proper amounts.  In my opinion, following this path of physical intuition is simpler and more effective than all the counting and measuring of modern diets.

Omega-3 Fats

Here is a newer study that looks at fish oil consumption and insulin resistance.  The study found that fish oil intake was "was a significant predictor of fasting insulin and insulin resistance", even after adjusting for other variables.

I think this finding is pretty impressive, and it concurs with other recent studies showing how important omega-3 fats are in treating the metabolic syndrome.