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When we eat is just as important as what we eat. Erratic eating habits or skipping a meal undermines our energy levels. To achieve balance within, we must first adjust our diets to include the right foods, in the right proportions, at the right times of day. We need to return to organically grown foods and adapt our lifestyles to the daily and seasonal circadian rhythms that will enable our bodies to synthesize, transmit and receive high-fidelity messages in the hormonal Internet between our brains and bodies.

Food variety is key in maintaining our regenerative and restorative anabolic drive. To ensure we have covered the nutritional bases each day, we should eat a large variety of bioenergetic whole foods including fruits, vegetables, sea veggies, whole grains, colourful salads, legumes, seeds, nuts and grasses such as wheatgrass. Variety also means eating something raw at each meal and snack–raw nuts and seeds, vegetables, sprouts or herbs. Utilizing raw foods ensures that the body will receive all the live enzymes, organic water and soluble and insoluble fibres that it needs.

We should eat appropriately sized meals so that we feel full for three hours after each meal and not hungry in between. This means our appetite-control hormones will be balanced and we won’t crave foods we don’t need, nor will we feel compelled to binge. Moderation also means limiting or omitting attractively packaged processed fast foods and foods that are high in salt, sweeteners and destructive trans fatty acids.

Benefits of Breakfast

There is wisdom in the adage, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Refueling in the morning when we wake up is critical. A good night’s sleep will raise dopamine and cortisol hormonal levels, which rouse us to action in the morning. Our bodies will use a "short-term" fat storage fuel mix, glycogen, available in our muscles and liver, to get us physically going. But by mid-morning, the storage has been completed. Energy levels fade and we begin to feel drowsy and irritable. Then the morning’s demands cannot be met with vigour, and the stress on an underfuelled body raises the stress hormone cortisol, as well as other stress hormones.

The right foods for breakfast could be one answer to fighting depression, stress, lack of energy, poor concentration and the inability to fall asleep quickly. Dr Wayne Callaway, associate clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University, observes that breakfast increases the metabolic rate by 25 percent and makes us feel good. The best energy-boosting breakfasts include one part protein to two parts low-density complex carbohydrates, with a little fat high in omega-3 essential fatty acids, plus 500 mg of borage oil or evening primrose oil. After exercising, your best energy-boosting breakfast is one part protein to four parts low-density complex carbohydrates, with the same omega-3 fats.

Lunch and Dinner

Lunch should be eaten about noon–two hours after the mid-morning snack. Whether we are at school, in an office, working outdoors, at home, traveling or eating in a restaurant, this is the meal at which we should emphasize lean protein and low-density carbohydrates that are minimally processed. The ideal lunch is a crisp salad, two servings of vegetables steamed "crunchy tender" and a lean source of protein.

Dinner needs to provide more low-density, natural carbohydrates, a moderate amount of protein, a small amount of fat and ample natural fibres from several sources. Late-night cravings for sweet-and-creamy foods like ice cream or salty-and-greasy foods like potato chips are most common when we skip dinner, avoid lunch or eat too many sugary foods throughout the day. These cravings are mostly conditioned responses: the more often we snack at night, the stronger our bodies’ craving to snack night after night.

Eating before 7:30 p.m. means our glycogen storage tanks are full by 10 p.m., which allows hormonal synthesis and the regenerative growth hormone (GH) to be secreted while we sleep. This also gives us the ability to sleep without refuelling during the night. If we eat later than 7:30 p.m., insulin levels will still be high when we go to sleep. High insulin levels drive down melatonin and GH levels, which means we are accelerating aging and promoting a catabolic decline. Melatonin is also a strong anti-cancer hormone and powerful antioxidant.

Hormonal Balance

All hormones and neurotransmitters function in a harmonious balance that biologists call "homeostasis" and quantum physicists call "supersymmetry." Our hunter-gatherer ancestors developed sophisticated hormonal systems that sent messages to instantaneously turn "on" or "off" any message relay systems between the brain and body. Hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, DHEA, melatonin, cortisol, growth hormone, dopamine and acetylcholine were developed and based on the natural bioenergetic food chain that existed during those times.

Still today, hormones are directly regulated by our diet and have a great effect on our health. We need about eight hours of sleep a night in a dark room for the hormones to function properly. It is only during the night that the body revitalizes and renews its 100 trillion cells. Eating bioenergetic food at the right times and living in sync with the circadian rhythms of night allow us to function optimally.

Sam Graci is the author of The Food Connection.

Source: alive #231, January 2002