Another New Year’s resolution of mine, was to clean up my diet and eat more organic produce as well as grass fed organic meats. I decided to eat a little bit of meat and produce every couple hours. My sugar highs and lows disappeared throughout the day, and I felt great! A few weeks after the new year, I found myself falling into the arms of convenience and eating processed junk food. What can I say, we are all human.
I discovered something very interesting when I went back to my old habits. My sleeping patterns, which had improved over the weeks prior went back to spotty at best. I would wake up at 3 am like clockwork. I always figured this had to do with my old bed, but due to recent habits, I realized it has more to do with the quality of food I place in my mouth. What does this mean? Eating good food, not only helps the body to function, but it also helps the body to repair.
A consistent circadian rhythm is key in starting your day and staying efficient. It is said that between 10pm and 2am, your physical body repairs, while between 2am and 6am neurological function repairs. This means that when I wake up at 3am and remain awake until roughly 4:30am my neurological function skipped an hour and a half of repairs. At 7am, when its time to start my day, I feel incredibly sluggish wanting a few more hours of sleep.
How does food effect this circadian rhythm? Stress. Low quality food covered in pesticides, injected with hormones and made with processed ingredients puts our bodies under additional stress. This type of stress combined with the stress of our daily lives has a direct effect on the delicate balance of hormones in our bodies. When that balance is skewed, our bodies respond by altering the circadian rhythm. This is a very simplified explanation, but moral of the story is: Eat high quality foods, your body will thank you.
