New research suggests that eating a high-fat diet may increase a person’s risk of obesity not only because of its high calorie content, but by also disrupting the body’s internal biological clock, which plays a vital role in controlling the activity of enzymes and hormones involved in metabolism.
Dr Oren Froy and colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have previously established that diet can affect the body clock. For this study they set out to determine whether or not the body clock controls the adiponectin signaling pathway, which plays an important role in metabolism, and, if so, what impact eating a high-fat diet has on this control.
Study results showed that the body clock does indeed control the adiponectin signaling pathway and that eating a high-fat diet disrupted the phases and daily rhythm of body clock genes in a manner that may increase the risk of obesity.
News release: Another reason to avoid high-fat diet — it can disrupt our biological clock. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. December 29th 2008.
