Eat Early, Eat Less; Time of Day Influences How Much We Eat, UTEP Study Finds 2/18/2004
From: John M. de Castro, 915-747-6558 or jdecastro@utep.edu, David Peregrino, 915-747-5085 or dperegrino@utep.edu, both of University of Texas at El Paso EL PASO, Texas, Feb. 18 -- A University of Texas at El Paso researcher says morning meals satisfy our hunger better and seem to reduce overindulgence throughout the day, bolstering the importance of breakfast in controlling our weight. "The more people ate in the morning, the less they ate overall the whole day," said UTEP Department of Psychology Chair and Professor John M. de Castro, who analyzed the seven-day "eating diaries" of almost 900 men and women. Conversely, meals eaten in the afternoon and evening didn't satisfy as much. So people ate more later, resulting in a greater daily intake of calories. "People can be eating at times when their physiology expects them to be sleeping," he said. De Castro thinks that our biological clocks, still ticking in a primordial daily rhythm with sunlight, may influence our late night munching. Our brains' satiation mechanismits way of telling us we're fullmay do its best work in the morning. At sundown, this mechanism may turn itself off. But artificial light keeps us goingand eatingwhen we'd normally be turning in for the night. De Castro's study appears in the January 2004 issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Television and overeating De Castro, who arrived at UTEP in 2003 from Georgia State University, devotes much of his research to humans' eating behaviors. In another recent study led by led by Nanette Stroebele, de Castro's Ph.D. student at GSU, the researchers found television to be an enemy of those trying to maintain a healthy weight. Examining the seven-day diet diaries of 78 undergraduate students, the scientists found the students ate morealmost one extra mealwhen they ate with the TV on. De Castro has some theories on why this happens: "One of our suspicions is the food presentation on TV." Another theory is "distraction creates disinhibition:" We just don't think about what we're popping in our mouths while we're entranced by the tube. The television-viewing/eating study is an article in press with the journal Appetite. A proof is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com For more information, visit Horizons, UTEP's faculty and staff online newsletter, at http://www.utep.edu/horizons Media Contact: Department of Psychology Professor and Chair John M. de Castro, 915-747-6558 or jdecastro@utep.edu or David Peregrino, University Communications, 915-747-5085 or dperegrino@utep.edu |