To optimize their hormonal balance, women should eat within the hour after waking up in order to lower cortisol, regulate ghrelin and leptin, and thus avoid late-afternoon cravings while improving their sleep.

noli's read

The idea of aligning morning food intake with our biological clock to regulate appetite is based on serious foundations. A randomized clinical trial published in The Journal of Nutrition (2026) confirms that eating breakfast decreases ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and specifically reduces sugar cravings at the end of the day. Furthermore, an observational study conducted by Witbracht et al. (2015) shows that women who skip breakfast exhibit a less stable cortisol (the wakefulness and stress hormone) rhythm in the afternoon. On the other hand, the strict requirement to eat 'within 60 minutes' of waking is more a matter of expert opinion and extrapolation, as no clinical trial validates this specific timing as a universal rule. Finally, the direct negative impact on sleep quality is exaggerated, as rigorous scientific data establishing this cause-and-effect link remain very limited.

the sources

1. 1Sievert K et al. 2019
2. 2Cioffi I, Evangelista A, Ponzo V, et al. 2018
3. 3Lowe DA, Wu N, Rohdin-Bibby L, et al. 2020
4. 4Liu D, Huang Y, Huang C, et al. 2022
5. 5Jamshed H, Steger FL, Bryan DR, et al. 2022