When You Eat As Important As What You Eat

Metabolism is tightly controlled by the body's biological or circadian clock. Consequently, there is an optimum time when sugar-burning and fat-burning is most efficient.

Mitochondria which are the tiny power centers inside cells that burn nutrients like sugar to make energy, contain circadian proteins which have peak times.

The study which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigated the mitochondria of mice and noted that the protein that was particularly important for controlling the rate of burning sugar for energy peaked 4
hours into the daylight part of their cycle.

The team also found that the protein that lets fatty acids into the power centers peaks at a different time to the protein that controls the rate of sugar-burning. And again, they found fat-burning was most efficient at this time.

Dr. Gad Asher, who was the study leader concluded that if we could be more aware of the timing of our cellular activities, we might be able to take advantage of various nutrients in a healthier way.