Jim Perko - The What to Eat When Cookbook : 135+ Deliciously Timed Recipes

Nutritional information can sometimes be confusing and conflicting (just say the word carb if you want to start a fork-to-fork fight among food aficionados). But we have a hunch that whatever your nutritional knowledge, you probably know the basics of fiber: Although it can come in many forms (beans, veggies, powder), the bottom line is that its very good for you and its easy to digest.

Well, consider this cheat sheet your literary fiber. Its really good for you and easy to digest.

In our first book, What to Eat When, we explained why timing is so important when it comes to your dietin other words, when you eat is just as vital as what you eat. Before you start cooking these delicious and easy recipes that follow, you need to know about What to Eat When (what we call the When Way). Thinking more about the timing of your meals will set the stage for whats to follow: a heaping helping of dishes that are as great for your tongue as they are for the rest of your body.

The When Way is beautifully simple: Eat only when the sun is up and eat more earlier in the day. Adapting this lifestyle will greatly change how your body interacts with food. Thats because biology shows us that our body has a food clock, just as it has a sleep clock (or circadian rhythm); were better equipped to eat, digest, absorb, and fuel our systems during certain parts of our daily cycle. Heres how it works:

Eat only when the sun is up: This tenet provides your body a specified window for eatingapproximately 12 hours, depending on the time of year. More importantly, it allows for a resting period (or fasting). In todays modern era, when many Americans eat all day up until they go to bed, our nutritional systems are less efficient, creating more health problems and not allowing our bodies to use that fuel properly. Give your eating window a start and finish time thats dictated by the sun (or when the sun should be out, such as 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and break the habit of bingeing on snacks and The Office for the sixth time. The longer the window of fasting, the better. Start with 12 hours of fasting, but if you can get to 14 or 16, even better.

Eat more earlier in the day: One of our biggest mistakes is that we often eat most of our calories toward the end of the day, with a heavy dinner and late-night snacking. The When Way is about flipping that ratio: You should eat most of your calories early in the day via some combo of breakfast and lunch. That doesnt mean you have to have a heavy breakfast if youre not a breakfast person, but you should consume 80 percent of your daily calories before 3 p.m.

Next time youre at a cocktail party and a well-meaning gentleman strolls up to you holding a pyramid of Swedish meatballs, tell him youre not hungry because of chrononutrition. Sure, the word still hasnt appeared as a puzzle on Wheel of Fortune, but you can probably figure out the derivationchrono (time) and nutrition (food). The science tells us that clocks and plates have more in common than just their circular shapes; theyre intricately linked to how our bodies work.

Your biological clockyour bodys automated system for conserving energyinfluences behavior from sunset to sunset. It does so by sending messages throughout your body via hormones. The signals tell us when to sleep and when to eat. This cycle is your circadian rhythm. These natural cues are relatively consistent from day to day, so that you can follow your biological rhythm effectively and efficiently.