Spring doesn't just come with benefits for humans, like longer days, warmer temperatures, more time spent outside with friends and family, and more. It seems that the spring season is that time of year when people start to consume more processed foods and go to the gym less.
"This effect is stronger in people who go to the gym regularly," says Rishika Rishika, a professor at North Carolina State University. "People who have a regular schedule for exercise are affected by the time change. This negative effect of longer days and warm weather is one more incentive not to lock yourself in the gym, but to enjoy another activity.”
The two studies were published in the Journal of Marketing this month, with one examining eating habits and the other examining exercise habits.
In the first study, researchers worked with a US-based packaged food company to collect consumer data between 2004 and 2010. All participants used a cellphone to record the foods they ate over a two-week period.
In the second study, the researchers collaborated with a national gym chain that provided data on how many people went to them during the spring season, as the weather warmed and the days got longer.
Both studies proved the professors' guesses that daylight saving time and long days completely affect people's healthy habits. This is not the first study to show the negative effects of daylight saving time and how it affects conditions such as depression, anxiety and seasonal affective disorder, according to Harvard Health Publishing. It seems that the delay of darkness brings another consequence: the disruption of the production of melantonin, which makes it more difficult for the body to rest and sleep on a certain schedule.
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Source: New York Post
