Of Mice and Men

A thought-provoking study recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism (May 17), showed that restricting eating to the 8 active hours of the day resulted in less weight gain than spreading the same amount of food intake throughout the day for mice. Can we infer the same for people? We don't know. The lead author of this study, Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, points out that every organ has a clock: there are times that our liver, intestines, muscles, and other organs work at peak efficiency and other times they are more or less sleeping. This is noticeable when traveling across different time zones. Asking the body to perform certain tasks at times that it would rather be sleeping could result in subpar function. We see this with increased incidence of serious illness in shift workers. So there are many reasons this could be similar in humans, but we just don't know. However, it is probably not a good idea to sit in front of the TV in the late evening while snacking. Mice or no mice, that can contribute to weight gain.