Traveling across time zones affects your circadian rhythm, making it difficult for you to adjust to new wake/sleep cycles, which people refer to as jet lag. Symptoms are typically worse if you are an older adult or if you are traveling east, because you are losing time going that direction. The more time zones you cross, the worse your jet lag is likely to be. Because your sleep is affected, you tend to feel tired during the day, are irritable, inattentive and prone to headaches, and you may experience gastrointestinal problems. Besides staying hydrated during your flight and taking the hormone melatonin, changing your diet may help fight combat jet lag.
Argonne Diet
A 2002 study published in "Military Medicine," a journal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, indicated that after testing the Argonne diet on 186 soldiers, the effects of jet lag were diminished. The diet involves four days of alternating between feasting and fasting before departure. The diet gets its name from the workplace of the man who proposed it, Charles Ehret of the Argonne National Laboratory, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, in Argonne, Illinois.
How It Works
Start feasting four days before you travel. The next day, you fast. Repeat the cycle until the day of your flight. When you feast, eat high-protein foods for breakfast and lunch, and high-carb foods for dinner. When you fast, you still eat, but you restrict your diet to small meals that total no more than 800 calories a day. Beginning three days before you leave, only have drinks with caffeine between the hours of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The day of the flight is a feast day; you can have caffeine in the morning if you are traveling west, but only have it between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. if traveling east. You cannot have any alcoholic beverages during the flight.
Results
In the 2002 "Military Medicine" study, soldiers who did not try the diet were 7.5 times more likely to experience jet lag upon arrival to a new destination. Upon returning home, soldiers who did not use the Argonne diet were 16.2 times more likely to have jet lag symptoms. The study also took into consideration whether the soldier held an active or a sedentary job. Results showed that physical activity is another factor that helps prevent jet lag.
Not Proven
The "Military Medicine" study was not large enough to conclude it was useful for everybody. Yet, the same concept was published in the "British Medical Journal" in 1993. Jim Waterhouse hypothesized that eating a high protein and low carb breakfast and lunch, teamed with a high carb and low protein dinner along with drinking caffeine in the afternoon, would help the body clock adjust. MayoClinic.com notes that there are no anti-jet-lag diets, as of 2010, proven to work. However, the Argonne diet does work for many people, is not too complicated to implement and is typically not harmful. As with any diet, before you try the Argonne diet, discuss it with your doctor or dietitian.
Member Comments