The Anti Jet Lag Diet

Hundreds of thousands of travelers have requested copies of the Anti-Jet-Lag Diet over the years. Among them are President Ronald Reagan (whose personal physician consulted with Dr. Ehret), the U.S. Army and Navy, the U.S. Secret Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve System, and the Canadian National Swim Team, and dozens of corporations, scout groups, church groups and other travelers.

The diet grew out of studies of circadian rhythms -- natural body cycles controlled by molecular "clocks" found in every cell of the body -- by scientists at the University of Chicago's Argonne National Laboratory

Here's the The Anti Jet-Lag-Diet:

To avoid jet lag, the Anti-Jet-Lag Diet uses some of the same time cues that cause it. These time cues include meal times, sunset and sunrise, and daily cycles of rest and activity. Normally, they work together to help keep the body on schedule and healthy.

The Anti-Jet-Lag Diet is more than a diet. It helps avoid jet lag with a coordinated plan that combines a number of time-giving cues -- including alternate days of moderate feasting and fasting -- to help speed your adjustment to a new schedule. Still, we call it a 'diet' because meals are central. What you eat sends your body signals about waking up and going to sleep. And because meals tend to occur at reasonably consistent times during the day, their regularity helps to reinforce the regularity of other time-setting activities.

The Anti-Jet-Lag Diet can help avoid jet lag with a planned rescheduling of time-giving cues. It starts a few days ahead of your departure date to prepare your time-zone adjustment by carefully planning the amounts and types of food eaten at meal times. On the day of you arrive at your destination, your body's clock is reset by assuming the same meal and activity schedule as people in the new time zone.

An example traveling east: A traveler planning a Sunday flight from New York to Paris faces a nine-hour flight across six time zones. The traveler plans to arrive Monday at 10 a.m. Paris time, and wants to advance his or her body clock so it is not still set for 4 a.m. New York time upon arrival.

To avoid jet lag, the traveler begins the Anti-Jet-Lag Diet on Thursday, three days before the flight. Meals are eaten at their regular New York times. Thursday is a feast day, to be followed by fasting on Friday, feasting on Saturday and fasting on Sunday. The day of the flight is always a fast day.

Feast days: On feast days, you eat three full meals. Take second helpings. Breakfast and lunch should be high in protein. Steak and eggs make a good breakfast, followed later by meat and, perhaps, beans for lunch. Protein helps the body produce chemicals it normally produces when it's time to wake up and get going. High-protein meals do not need to be exclusively protein, but they should emphasize it.

Supper is high in carbohydrates. They help the body produce chemicals that it normally produces when its time to bring on sleep. Spaghetti or another pasta is good, but no meatballs -- they contain too much protein. High-carbohydrate meals need not be exclusively carbohydrate, but they should emphasize it.

Fast days: On fast days, eat three small meals. They should be low in carbohydrates and calories to help deplete the liver's store of carbohydrates. Acceptable meals on fast days would contain 700 calories or less and might consist of skimpy salads, thin soups and half-slices of bread.

Whether feasting or fasting, the traveler drinks coffee, or any other drink containing caffeine, only between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. This is the one time of day when caffeine seems to have no effect on the body's rhythms.

Flight day: Sunday evening -- flight day -- you board the plane about 7 p.m. and begin the first phase of speeding up your body's internal clock to Paris time. Drink two or three cups of coffee between 9 and 10 p.m., turn off the overhead light and goes to sleep.

Destination breakfast time: About 1:30 a.m. New York time, you take the final steps that reset your body's clock to Paris time: You begin a third feast day, but this one is based on Paris time. It may be 1:30 a.m. in New York, but in Paris it's 7:30 a.m. -- your normal breakfast time. You wake up -- the coffee you drank before going to sleep helps you do this -- and eat a high-protein breakfast without coffee; it might be last night's supper, which you saved for breakfast. Most airlines will gladly agree to this request. The large, high-protein meal helps your body wake up and synchronize itself with the Parisians, who are eating breakfast at about the same time.

Stay active: Having finished breakfast, you stay active to keep your body working on Paris time. The other passengers may be asleep, but you are walking the aisles, talking to the flight attendants or working at your seat.

Monday afternoon in Paris, eat a high-protein lunch. Steak is a good choice. That evening, eat a high-carbohydrate supper -- crepes, for example, but with no high-protein meat filling -- and go to bed early.

Tuesday morning, you wake up with little or no jet lag.

The return trip, traveling west: On the return trip, the procedure is reversed, with one change. Going from east to west, you want to turn the body clock back six hours so that upon arrival at, say, 10 p.m. New York time, your body clock is not still set at 4 a.m. Paris time. The same feast-fast-feast-fast procedure is followed as before.

For the first four days, your meals and activities are on Paris time. Your fourth day -- a fast day -- is the day you leave Paris. In the morning, you drink two or three cups of caffeinated coffee. You break the fast with a high-protein "breakfast" at the same time New Yorkers are eating breakfast.

At that point, you begin a third feast day, but on a New York time schedule. Do not nap on the plane after you break the fast. Stay active and alert. In New York, go to bed about an hour earlier than usual. Wake up the next morning with little or no jet lag.


Medical caution: Remember to be safe. If you are under a doctor's care, you should consult your physician before using the Anti-Jet-Lag Diet -- not because using the Anti-Jet-Lag Diet will harm you, but because varying your doctor's instructions might.

For a small fee you can get your personalized anti-jet-lag diet here.
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