“Circadian rhythms optimize physiology and health by temporally coordinating cellular function, tissue function, and behavior” (Manoogian & Panda, 2017).
These rhythms dampen with age and metabolic dysfunction. Part of the age factor is caused by a natural decline in eyesight as we age and that deteriorates our ability to entrain the master clock with light.
Light/dark & feeding/fasting (and even exercise [before 4pm]) are our tools.
Even I’ll admit 2-3 meals a day with no snacking seems optimal for most people and a good pattern for optimizing protein utilization. Want to mix in some intermittent fasting? eTRF seems like the strongest contender but my interpretation of the evidence is somewhat less strict than what appears in the literature — eg, I don’t think you need a kcal % distribution of 50/30/20 or need to have dinner at 3pm. Just shifting away from a late eating pattern seems sufficient.
A lot of things started going downhill after the invention of artificial lighting — we no longer have the automatic light/dark cycle.
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