At Darwin’s Table

In todays society people are getting less and less sleep. Unfortunately, getting less sleep causes our body to become stressed and a byproduct of this is an increase in the production of the hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol leads to an increase in insulin resistance, which results in increased insulin levels. This of course results in our bodies storing more fat. For further information on how this occurs read this post. Increases in insulin drives our blood sugar levels down and the most common way people rectify this is by eating more carbohydrates, which results in more insulin production and further fat storage. 

Even a few hours of sleep deprivation results in significantly increased cortisol levels. A good diet can overcome this. Barry Sears, author of the zone, did a mini study as outlined in his new book ‘toxic fat’. He looked at medical interns who were about to begin a two week period of sleep deprivation on the medical wards. During this time they got approximately four hours of sleep a night. He split the interns into two groups – one group received a zone type diet (lean protein, vegetables, fruits and unrefined carbs) along with Omega 3 tablets (2.5g of EPA and DHA everyday) while the other group ate normally. After two weeks those interns on a zone diet (low carb) lost weight and showed improved blood lipid levels while the other group gained weight, and their cholesterol and triglyceride levels increased. 

This is most likely attributable to the low carb zone diet lowering insulin levels and counteracting the negative effects of sleep deprivation, which causes an increase in insulin levels. Thus, another benefit of a paleo or low carb diet is that you are able to run on less sleep without some of the negative consequences. However, this is not recommended (by me) as everyone should aim to get plenty of the snooze. Another interesting aspect of the study found that those on the low carb diet had superior word recall at the end of the two weeks than the group eating normal foods. Thus, this type of diet seems to improve mental performance and this is most likely due to the increase in Omega 3’s.

On a side note I have just added my profile and you can see it here.