Feeding Behavior and Circadian Rhythms

Circadian rhythms consist of 24-hour cycles of physiological processes in living things, controlled by a master circadian clock. Although they are considered to be originated internally, external factors, such as sunlight, can affect their patterns. Given this, it is easy to see how circadian rhythms are important for organism behavioral patterns, such as sleeping and feeding. For example, when exposed to sunlight or artificial light while sleeping, it is our body’s natural tendency to wake, which may in turn disrupt our natural sleeping and waking cycle that may have kept us in slumber for a longer period of time.

In the Cavanaugh Lab at Loyola University Chicago, the team used Drosophila in order to determine if circadian rhythms are linked to feeding behaviors. The researchers chose Drosophila due to their similar circadian clock processes to humans. They found that circadian rhythms have an effect on feeding behavior, and that altering their food availability, when they eat and how much they consume at once, is correlated to these rhythms. Austin Dreyer, a member of the research team, presented this information in great detail during his talk “Circadian Regulation of Drosophila on Feeding Behavior.”

In an article titled Delayed meal times reset body clocks, findings suggested that coordinating meal times with natural circadian rhythm times may be helping to keep the clock consistent. Due to the correlation between meal times and blood sugar rhythms, pushing back meal times could alter the clocks that regulate our metabolic tissues, but not the master circadian clock. A 13-day experiment was then conducted using ten healthy men and allowing them to eat three meals in five-hour intervals. After a few days, the researchers pushed back the meal times in order to determine the effects of feeding time. They found that this change did not have significant effects on the master circadian clock, but did affect the rhythms of blood sugar levels, delaying them more than five hours on average. The results of this experiment show that feeding behavior does affect certain body rhythms, in this case, metabolic rhythms. The article showed that it is important to regulate meal times in order to help synchronize our body’s circadian clock.