What is Chrono-Nutrition?

We will be posting quite a bit about Chrono-Nutrition and the science behind it. Most importantly, we will be discussing how we can use nutrition and supplements to optimize our biorhythms and ride the day in flow vs. fighting our biorhythms and wrecking our health.

Our internal biological clock has very distinct, specific nutritional needs throughout a 24-hour cycle. Our daily clock runs on circadian rhythms that are dictated by many factors such as light and darkness, body temperature and our sleep-wake cycles. This internal clock can affect our alertness, fatigue, and levels of energy throughout the day.

Chrono-Nutrition Won the 2017 Nobel Prize

This concept of circadian rhythms actually won the Nobel Prize in Medicine! Read this excellent Wired article to get the full details: The Noble Prize in Medicine Goes to Your Body's Circadian Clock. 

"All organisms operate on a 24-hour circuit that governs critical functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, hormone levels, metabolism, sleep, and even behavior..."

 

So, we know that our "central clock" which is affected by light, and the earth's 24 hour phases. We know we should not have screens (blue light) close to bedtime (we will cover other sleep hygiene practices soon). But, and here is where it gets really interesting – your body has a second "peripheral clock".

This peripheral clock has less to do with the rising and setting of the sun and more about what you eat and when you don't. That's the chrono part of chrono-nutrition.

But there's still that second aspect: nutrition! It is not just WHEN we eat, but WHAT we eat that impacts our overall health.

Much of this links back to ancient wisdom that is promoted by Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. To quote Deanna Minich, Ph. D. in her excellent HuffPost article Chrono-nutrition: Why When You Eat is as Important as What you Eat:

"Circadian rhythm is such a fascinating field of research because it validates the body’s wisdom and, in doing so, allows us to work with its natural rhythm in order to maintain or restore health."

How MANTRA Labs Helps with Chrono-Nutrition

Working with and restoring this rhythm is exactly why we developed RISE, GO and REST.

We've identified the three most important times to address what's going on with your body. 

In the morning, if you're like most people, you have difficulty waking up, being focused and just getting stuff done. You depend on coffee and feel rushed. It's at this point of day that you're lacking adequate hydration, probably didn't get enough sleep, and don't have enough time to get something real to eat.

This is where RISE comes in. It's designed to fulfill the nutritional aspect and also, arguably the most important time for hydration and nutrition.

GO helps with the middle of the day – the time when your energy wanes, you feel dragged out, and you find yourself reaching for a cup of coffee or a conversation to help wake you up.

Finally, REST assists with helping you get to sleep and stay asleep. As you know, your circadian rhythm dictates you should be sleeping around the time the sun goes down.

But modern technology (think blue light, cell phones and lights, in general) have destroyed any sense of your natural circadian rhythm. The result is you're not tired when lay down in bed (if you climb in bed at a "decent" time), you don't get enough sleep, and you're exhausted when you wake up in the morning.

REST is carefully balanced to give you the right amount of sleep aids like lemon balm, magnesium, GABA, Suntheanine (L-theanine) and melatonin to make sure you wake up feeling rested and ready to attack the day.

 

This concept of Chrono-Nutrition is critical and impacts not only how we perform physically each day, but it has a profound effect on our moods, overall cognition and how long we live. We think that is pretty important! Let's keep exploring together. 

Quickly and easily discover the benefits of proper Chrono-Nutrition with our 10-Day or 30-Day Chrono-Bundles.