Eating for Better Sleep & Foods that Improve Metabolic Health | Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge

Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD⁠, is a professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University School of Medicine and an expert on the bidirectional relationship between nutrition and sleep. We discuss how even moderate sleep loss increases appetite, changes hunger-related hormones, and causes weight gain, even when calories are not increased. We also explain how meal timing and specific foods, like fiber, ginger, saturated fat, and various oils, affect sleep onset, sleep quality, and metabolism. Throughout the conversation, we discuss specific foods and diets that directly support weight loss, better sleep, and long-term cardiometabolic health.

Articles

• Association between reduced sleep and weight gain in women (American Journal of Epidemiology)
• Short sleep duration increases energy intakes but does not change energy expenditure in normal-weight individuals (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Short sleep duration, glucose dysregulation and hormonal regulation of appetite in men and women (Sleep)
• Sleep restriction leads to increased activation of brain regions sensitive to food stimuli (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• The effects of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance: a systematic review and meta-analysis (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Effects of Experimental Sleep Restriction on Energy Intake, Energy Expenditure, and Visceral Obesity (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)
• Chronic Insufficient Sleep in Women Impairs Insulin Sensitivity Independent of Adiposity Changes: Results of a Randomized Trial (Diabetes Care)
• Sustained Mild Sleep Restriction Increases Blood Pressure in Women: An Update From the American Heart Association Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network (Hypertension)
• Experimental sleep curtailment causes wake-dependent increases in 24-h energy expenditure as measured by whole-room indirect calorimetry (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Mediterranean diet pattern and sleep duration and insomnia symptoms in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (Sleep)
• Greater adherence to healthful dietary patterns is associated with lower insomnia risk in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (Sleep)
• Fiber and Saturated Fat Are Associated with Sleep Arousals and Slow Wave Sleep (Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine)
• Sleep chart of biological ageing clocks in middle and late life (Nature)
• Multidimensional sleep health: definitions and implications for cardiometabolic health: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes)
• High glycemic index and glycemic load diets as risk factors for insomnia: analyses from the Women's Health Initiative (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Kefir consumption does not alter plasma lipid levels or cholesterol fractional synthesis rates relative to milk in hyperlipidemic men: a randomized controlled trial (BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
• A weight-loss diet including coffee-derived mannooligosaccharides enhances adipose tissue loss in overweight men but not women (Obesity)
• Ginger consumption enhances the thermic effect of food and promotes feelings of satiety without affecting metabolic and hormonal parameters in overweight men: a pilot study (Metabolism)
• Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status (Cell)
• Delaying mealtimes reduces fat oxidation: A randomized, crossover, controlled feeding study (Obesity)
• Timing of food intake predicts weight loss effectiveness (International Journal of Obesity)
• Weight-loss diet that includes consumption of medium-chain triacylglycerol oil leads to a greater rate of weight and fat mass loss than does olive oil (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Effects of a dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods vs lovastatin on serum lipids and C-reactive protein (JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association))
• Snack chips fried in corn oil alleviate cardiovascular disease risk factors when substituted for low-fat or high-fat snacks (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)

Other Resources

• ThisLittle-Known Diet Can Actually Lower Your Cholesterol

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Healthy Eating & Eating Disorders - Anorexia, Bulimia, Binging
• Improving Science & Restoring Trust in Public Health | Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

People Mentioned

• Susan Redline: professor of sleep medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Justin Sonnenburg: professor of microbiology & immunology, Stanford Medicine
• Sean Mackey: professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine, Stanford University
• Alan Aragon: nutrition researcher
• David Jenkins: professor of medicine and nutritional sciences, University of Toronto
• Joanna Steinglass: professor of psychiatry, Columbia University