Ditch the food, ditch the jet lag
Monday June 02 2008
If you are heading on a long plane journey soon and want to reduce the effects of jet lag, it is worth looking at what you eat.
Adjusting meal times can help travellers recover from jet lag, a new study in the journal Science suggests.
Harvard University researchers believe the brain has a second 'feeding clock', which keeps track of meal-times, rather than daytime.
Shiftworkers and long-distance travellers can keep tiredness at bay by not eating.
It says while it is never possible to make the symptoms of jet lag disappear entirely, it could make them more manageable. For example, if travelling from the US to Japan, you are forced to adjust to an 11-hour time difference.
Because the body's biological clock can only shift a small amount each day, it takes the average person about a week to adjust to the new time zone.
A period of fasting, with no food at all for about 16 hours, is enough to engage this new clock, they added.
So, in this case, simply avoiding any food on the plane, and then eating as soon as you land, should help you to adjust and avoid some of the uncomfortable feelings of jet lag.
However, people on medication or sufferers of certain medical conditions should always check with their doctor before going without food for this long.
