6 Effective Foods to Help Get Rid of Jet Lag: Get Your Diet Right!

You may have noticed, while you travel abroad to a completely different time zone, you tend to feel fatigued and hungry at all the wrong times. This is because you are jet lagged, which is quite normal. Ordinarily, the human biological clock is in sync with a standard 24-hour clock, the phenomenon known as circadian rhythm, which gets disturbed when you travel across different time zones. The body takes five to seven days to acclimatise the new change and work according to the new time. It is a common mental and physical dysfunction that cannot be easily cured as it takes its own sweet time to adopt newer eating and sleeping patterns. While there is a rare chance that jet lag cannot be completely cured within a day or two, you can always reduce it with the foods you choose to eat.

Common Symptoms of Jet Lag

According to our expert Nutritionist, Mehar Rajput, "It gets harder to settle into a routine with timely meals and get the necessary nutrition required by the body on a daily basis. Due to a change in time zones, our body is used to receiving nutrition according to the previous time zone. It is difficult for the body to absorb and digest food eaten at an odd time. A loss of appetite due to tiredness and lethargy is common when you're jet lagged." While jet lag can affect different bodies in different ways, it can have some common symptoms that you must not ignore. Some of the common symptoms include disturbed sleep, daytime tiredness or fatigue, diarrhea or constipation, nausea, mood swings and pain in certain parts of the body.

Note: These are general symptoms of jet lag; they may vary from person to person.

Super Foods for Jet Lag

1. Lemon

Sucking on to lemon slices or drinking lemon water may help cure jet lag way faster. Lemons have strong hydrating properties that help keep your body hydrated for longer periods. Every morning, beat the jet lag with a hot cup of lemon water as it will not only hydrate you but also alkalise the body, after a restless night's sleep.

2. Banana

Bananas are highly effective when it comes to curing jet lag. The presence of Tryptophan in bananas helps increase the serotonin in your body, which further helps you to control the sleeping schedule and eliminate jet lag.(Also read: Have you Been Eating Banana with Milk? You Need to Read this)

3. Goji Berries

Goji berries help in enhancing the quality of your sleep. Symptoms of jet lag also include sleeping disorders; hence, goji berries are known to make jet lag a little easier to get over. Drink a tea made with goji berries or eat it as it is.(Also read: 8 Wonder Berries and their Health Benefits)
 

 

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4. Ginger

Adding ginger to your daily diet is a highly effective remedy for curing jet lag, especially when it comes to feeling nauseated. Ginger also cures digestive problems that occur due to spending long hours in the flight.

5. Cherry

Cherry is one of the only natural food sources of melatonin. Adding cherries to your diet may actually help in resetting your sleeping patterns. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), melatonin is a pineal hormone that plays a central part in regulating bodily rhythms and has been used as a drug to re-align them with the outside world.

6. Quinoa

Jet lag drains all your energy and makes you feel fatigued and tired all the time. Hence, consuming quinoa is one of the best remedies to cure this problem. It contains all nine essential amino acids that the body cannot make for itself, crucial for building muscles and increasing energy reserves.

Apart from consuming all these foods, you must remember to keep yourself hydrated all the time, drink water as much as you can throughout the day. Try and avoid alcohol and curtail tea or coffee or any other caffeinated drinks. Keep yourself super active and indulge in exercises to keep your body physically healthy to avoid any tiredness.