Biohacking of diets and how does it help?

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Times Of India

Edited for content.

Our Takeaways:

· Dieting is one of the most fundamental ways to transform the body

· Experimenting with eliminating certain foods from the diet can be helpful

· Fasting is an ancient and proven method towards preserving health and mental function

What Is Biohacking? If we bring down that term by hacking, we see that the bio has to do with our biology to do with our body? The way our body functions are natural processes in the body from eating to performance and so on and hacking is, of course, trying to decode something. Biohacking of diet is trying to use science or technology to improve our body’s functioning by way of eating. “I think our bodies are incredibly intelligent and given the right diet in the right lifestyle, we can elevate ourselves and feel amazing. Everyone has a scope of self-improvement and living their best life and biohacking of diets can make that possible without spending all money on fancy foods and a million different tools, gadgets and medicines to feel good. It’s a natural way to optimise the body’s performance,” says Nutritionist Ritu Khaneja

Diet Hack #1
Elimination Diet

An elimination diet is one where you can eliminate certain foods based on medical research to see if you react to them. You can generally start by eliminating the most common food allergens for a few weeks then you slowly add them back one at a time and note any symptoms better or worse. The main benefit is that by turning into a body’s reactions to certain foods you can’t pinpoint sensitivities and intolerances that you may not otherwise know of experiencing results.
It is less expensive and, in some cases, more reliable than standard allergy testing. It can also be very empowering to be in control of what you eat learn about food and the compounds they contain and try new recipes that exclude eliminated foods. Having a good diet plan makes things much easier and beneficial.

Diet Hack #2
Intermittent Fasting

There are several approaches to intermittent fasting but the easiest to achieve is the one that simply extends the usual timing of the night fast. A daily cycle of a 1 6 hour fast followed by an 8-hour eating window is usually sustainable for intermittent fasting. It must be combined with balanced meals that provide good nutrition. The goal of IF is to systematically starve the body long enough to trigger fat burning but the method may not be suitable for everyone. When done correctly intermission fasting can help lose weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent or control diabetes and improve the brain’s health.

Diet Biohack#3
Adding More Fibre To The Diet

The normal fibre in our body has been eliminated just with the processing of food. One of the best way to eat fibre is by adding more fruits and vegetables to our diet. The benefits of fibre are weight control and maintaining bowel movements.lt also helps in lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Diet Hack #4
Adding Superfoods

The first step that I take to treat my clients through diet is adding superfoods. There is a whole list of superfoods with numerous benefits. 1 st category of superfoods is seeds not just any seeds but 2 seeds which one should hack into the diet are chia and flax. Chia seeds are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, They have more calcium than milk and there are great sources of anti-inflammatory compounds. They’re great for growing skin and mental health and clarity and much much more. Flaxseeds are another great source for omega 3 fats and dietary fibre as well as essential vitamins minerals name powerful anti-cancer hormone-balancing compounds called lignans. It’s a great way of curing constipation as well.

Diet Biohack #5
Protein-Rich Diet

Eating plenty of high protein foods include a generous portion of at least 1 protein rich food at every meal will help you lose body fat or improve your body composition. Eating protein-rich meals can help you feel full and satisfied so you will eat less and lose weight. A high protein diet can help reduce insulin resistance so if you have diabetes or prediabetes, a high protein diet could be a good strategy for improving your blood sugar control.

To conclude, I think Biohacking of diet should be done mindfully as if something can be very beneficial for one body, It doesn’t mean it will suit everyone.

How the timing of dinner and genetics affect individuals’ blood sugar control

Eating dinner close to bedtime, when melatonin levels are high, disturbs blood sugar control, especially in individuals with a genetic variant in the melatonin receptor MTNR1B, which has been linked to an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes. The high melatonin levels and food intake associated with late eating impairs blood sugar control in carriers of the MTNR1B genetic risk variant through a defect in insulin secretion

This article is a repost which originally appeared on ScienceDaily
Massachusetts General Hospital - January 25, 2022
Edited for content and readability - Images sourced from Pexels 
Source: DOI: 10.2337/dc21-1314

Our Takeaways:

  • The melatonin receptor-1b gene (MTNR1B) has been linked with an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes.
  • Late dinner timing resulted in lower insulin levels and higher blood sugar levels for the entire group
  • People with the MTNR1B gene had higher blood sugar levels than those without this genetic variant.

Blood sugar control, which is impaired in individuals with diabetes, is affected by various factors — including the timing of meals relative to sleep as well as levels of melatonin, a hormone primarily released at night that helps control sleep-wake cycles. In research published in Diabetes Care, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the University of Murcia in Spain conducted a clinical trial to look for connections between these two factors.

“We decided to test if late eating that usually occurs with elevated melatonin levels results in disturbed blood sugar control,” says senior author Richa Saxena, PhD, a principal investigator at the Center for Genomic Medicine at MGH.

For the randomized crossover study that included 845 adults from Spain, each participant fasted for eight hours and then for the next two evenings had first an early meal and then a late meal relative to their typical bedtime. The investigators also analyzed each participant’s genetic code within the melatonin receptor-1b gene (MTNR1B) because previous research has linked a variant (called the G-allele) in MTNR1B with an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes.

“In natural late eaters, we simulated early and late dinner timing by administering a glucose drink and compared effects on blood sugar control over two hours,” explains Saxena. “We also examined differences between individuals who were carriers or not carriers of the genetic variant in the melatonin receptor.”

The team found that melatonin levels in participants’ blood were 3.5-fold higher after the late dinner. The late dinner timing also resulted in lower insulin levels and higher blood sugar levels. (This connection makes sense because insulin acts to decrease blood sugar levels.) In the late dinner timing, participants with the MTNR1B G-allele had higher blood sugar levels than those without this genetic variant.

“We found that late eating disturbed blood sugar control in the whole group. Furthermore, this impaired glucose control was predominantly seen in genetic risk variant carriers, representing about half of the cohort,” says lead author Marta Garaulet, PhD, a professor of physiology and nutrition in the Department of Physiology at the University of Murcia.

Experiments revealed that the high melatonin levels and carbohydrate intake associated with late eating impairs blood sugar control through a defect in insulin secretion.

“Our study results may be important in the effort towards prevention of type 2 diabetes,” says co-senior author Frank A.J.L. Scheer, PhD, MSc, director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at BWH. “Our findings are applicable to about a third of the population in the industrialized world who consume food close to bedtime, as well as other populations who eat at night, including shift workers, or those experiencing jetlag or night eating disorders, as well as those who routinely use melatonin supplements close to food intake.”

The authors note that for the general population, it may be advisable to abstain from eating for at least a couple of hours before bedtime. “Genotype information for the melatonin receptor variant may further aid in developing personalized behavioral recommendations,” says Saxena. “Notably, our study does not include patients with diabetes, so additional studies are needed to examine the impact of food timing and its link with melatonin and receptor variation in patients with diabetes.”