You've heard this old saying, yes? "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper." Studies have shown that indeed, it's good advice, helps keep one's weight down and also helps us avoid several health problems. Do I eat that way? Breakfast and lunch, pretty much. Dinner? Nope. Like many Americans, dinner is usually my largest meal of the day.
We all have a master clock in that part of the brain called the Hippopotamus. Or is it the Hypotenuse? Anyway, it's the boss, the orchestra conductor, runs the whole show but sublets many timing functions to the organs. The brain thingee gets confused and irritated if, after placing everything on hold for the night, it discovers you're eating. Again!? It gets revenge by causing diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, hang nails and bad hair days.
Two groups of mice were fed exactly the same type and amount of mouse chow every day. One group was fed only during daylight hours; the other group could eat their ration any time, day or night. The daylight group maintained their fighting weight; the anytime group got fat. Scientists had so much fun with that study, they tried it on two groups of men. Yup. Same result, svelte day-timers, lard butt any-timers.
No, I don't know why they didn't do a study with women. I suspect that the ladies heard about the male any-timers getting fat, didn't want any part of it, told the scientists to go suck an egg.
Those working night shift or living in the far north (or far south) where the sun doesn't shine at all in the dead of winter have a problem. They need to be in brightly lighted areas for 8+ hours a day and eat their meals during that time or they get messed up something awful. Most folks know that flying across several time zones messes us up too. Gotta reset the clock, takes awhile, about one day per time zone.
Yeah, organs have timers, too. Your gut, for instance. Morning comes, it's all excited, starts pumping out enzymes and other digestive stuff, pushes waste matter down the tube. When everything's ready, it wants food. Now! C
'mon dummy, get some vittles down here!
Enter the rhythm section. And a large section it is: circadian rhythms, diurnal rhythms, algorithms, logarithms and so on. This entire section, called biorhythms, is also controlled by the ignoramus; yup, it's a busy little bugger. Everyone has their very own set of biorhythms, most of which support the king/prince/pauper-daylight dining thing.
Oh, now I remember: hypothalamus. Here it is, along with a job description.
