Mice that eat at the wrong time of day get fat
By Evan Agostini, AP
The study, done by researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Haifa in Israel, looked at the effects of dim light and bright light exposure during the night on mice. It is in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Both the mice exposed to dim light and bright light at night had significantly increased body mass and reduced glucose tolerance compared to mice living in a normal light/dark cycle, even when they got the same number of calories a day.
It's a small study and in mice, but the researchers note that there's good evidence that low levels of light during the night may disrupt when animals (and humans) eat and other metabolic signals that could lead to weight gain.
Normally, nocturnal rodents eat more during the night time. The more these mice ate during the daytime, when they normally wouldn't have, the fatter they got.
The study suggests that, in mice at least, "timing of food intake is a critical factor mediating increased weight gain," according to the paper.
While there's been much written about how "prolonged computer use and television viewing have been identified as risk factors for obesity, diabetes and metabolic disorders," researchers have presumed the connection was the lack of physical activity associated with all that screen time. However, "the results from the current study suggest that exposure to night time lighting and the resulting changes in the daily pattern of food intake and activity also may be contributing factors," the paper concludes.
One thing that doesn't appear to have been studied is whether the move of the main meal of the day from the old-fashioned 'dinner' at noon to the now-typical evening dinner. Perhaps our ancestors were right?
By Elizabeth Weise
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