Biochemistry and No Snacks

Disclaimer: I am not a scientist which will become obvious as I try to explain the truths I have learned about biochemistry and snacking. But I think if I can get my beliefs in front of me it will help inform my decisions better, as in, "shut the refrigerator door and go to bed!" Entire books have been written on each of these hormones and I have probably oversimplified their roles. But this is the way I see it. There is a kind of hormonal dance going on throughout our cells. The food we eat and when we eat that food is directing the hormonal dance. I know the following information should be cited, but I have just gathered notes from various books, blogs, and essays and you can google most of this information. So anyone using this material should go to primary sources.

3 Important Hormones and how they relate to the No Snacking Rule


Leptin:
Leptin sensitivity and leptin resistance determine the human energy balance. Leptin is to humans as photosynthesis is to plants. It is the most powerful hormone in the human body. What does this have to do with snacking? There is a 24 hour leptin pattern. Leptin levels rise at night, are the highest the first two hours of sleep, fall during the evening, and are lowest around noon. A high leptin level tells a person that she is full. It is normal not to be hungry after supper. Not eating after supper and going 11-12 hours until breakfast is fundamental for establishing healthy patterns of hormones. Improperly timed eating can disrupt all of our hormones and it throws the body out of rhythm. Sleep is our primary fat burning time. But this can only happen when no food has been eaten for 11-12 hours. During the night the body gradually begins to burn a higher portion of fat for fuel. The 9-12 hours after supper is when the body can access the fat stores in the buttocks, thighs, and stomach. Sounds good to me! If anything is eaten before bed, this prime fat burning time is shut off! So no snacking after supper is a good rule and it is simply a fact of biochemistry.

Insulin:
Insulin carries glucose to various cells. If we overeat at mealtime (seconds) or eat in between meals (snacks)  insulin takes the glucose to the liver, muscles, etc. to be dropped off. But the cells do not need the fuel so they refuse the delivery and turn off the receptors for insulin. This is insulin resistance. And the liver can become insulin resistant. Eating between meals causes the liver to retain the calories it has in storage. A person who has a "clogged" liver suffers from fatigue, is tired easily by stress, has difficulty going 5 or 6 hours without eating, and the liver turns the calories into fat. Fatigue and getting hungry too often are evidence of an out of shape liver.

Ghrelin:
Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the stomach that signals that it is time to eat. Cells in the stomach release this hormone which is controlled by a circadian clock that is set by mealtime patterns. Scientists call this group of hormones the timekeepers of hunger. In a normal weight person, ghrelin rises before meals to signal hunger. When leptin is too high in the overweight individual, ghrelin loses its normal function. In an overweight person ghrelin levels before eating are lower than normal, and the levels will stay high after food is eaten. This stimulates excess eating and especially excess eating of carbohydrates. Eating between meals throws off the natural hormonal signals.We need to "set our clocks" by eating at meal times and not in between.

When we eat in between meals or after our last meal at night, we are messing with our hormones and their signaling to each other. There needs to be five or six hours between meals so that our wonderfully designed bodies can work their magic. When we snack, even on healthy foods, we are messing with the hormonal communication which controls our appetite and hunger signals as well as fat burning and/or storage.

So whether Reinhard (the NoS guru) knew all of this hormonal stuff or not when he said No Snacks, it is nevertheless sound biochemistry.  So much for those folks who advocate eating healthy snacks between meals. They just don't know how the innocent snack interferes with our hormonal balance. Very few people have low blood sugar and need a snack. If they do, they should be monitoring there blood sugar to know for sure.

Now knowing these truths about hormones (and there is more when you add in cortisol and estrogen) I am more inspired to get them regulated. I am eating a big protein breakfast without any carbohydrates, waiting at least 5 hours for a light lunch, and then no snacking until supper which needs to end by 7:00.