Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University, discusses the bidirectional relationship between nutrition and sleep. She explains how even moderate sleep loss increases appetite, alters hunger hormones, and can cause weight gain even without extra calories. St-Onge also covers how meal timing and specific foods—like fiber, ginger, and saturated fat—affect sleep quality and metabolism, and shares evidence-based dietary approaches like the Mediterranean and DASH diets to improve sleep and cardiometabolic health.
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Sleep Loss Increases Appetite and Alters Hunger Hormones00:02:29
Even mild sleep restriction of 4-6 hours per night increases hunger and changes the balance of appetite-regulating hormones.
Fiber, Ginger, Kefir, and Coffee Compounds Influence Sleep and Metabolism00:56:46
Specific foods and fermentable fibers—including ginger, kefir, and coffee mannooligosaccharides—show promise for improving sleep quality and supporting weight loss.
Industry-Sponsored Studies Can Distort Nutrition Science01:41:20
Studies funded by the food industry often produce findings that favor commercial interests, highlighting the need for critical evaluation of nutrition research.