You have lunch at about midday and dinner in the evening – which might simply be habit but is more likely to be because the body requires more energy at certain times of day.

    This indicated to scientists that there must be a link between human metabolism and the circadian clock, the internal mechanism that keeps track of time and regulates the body accordingly. 

    The connection proved elusive, however.

    This week researchers at the University of California, Irvine, claim to have solved the mystery. 

    The missing link is a protein called SIRT1 that is already known to have life-extending properties. Red wine, which in moderation is thought to enhance health, contains the chemical resveratrol, which boosts production of SIRT1. 

    One implication of the research is that faults in the SIRT1 mechanism might influence behaviour, including the overeating that leads to obesity. According to team leader Paolo Sassone-Corsi, it might be possible in future to treat some metabolic disorders by manipulating the mechanism. 

    我們大約在正午時(shí)分吃午飯，在晚上吃晚飯——這可能只是一種習(xí)慣，但更有可能是因?yàn)樯眢w在一天的特定時(shí)間需要更多的能量。

    這就提醒科學(xué)家，人體的新陳代謝與生物鐘之間一定存在某種聯(lián)系，一種感知時(shí)間并據(jù)此調(diào)節(jié)身體的內(nèi)部機(jī)能。

    然而，這種聯(lián)系很難弄清楚。

    本周，加州大學(xué)歐文分校(University of California, Irvine)的研究人員宣稱(chēng)已揭開(kāi)此謎。

    這一環(huán)就是被稱(chēng)為SIRT1的蛋白質(zhì)，人們已知它具有延長(zhǎng)壽命的功能。人們認(rèn)為，適當(dāng)飲用紅酒可促進(jìn)健康，而紅酒中就含有加速SIRT1生成的化合物白藜蘆醇。

    此項(xiàng)研究的一個(gè)推論就是，SIRT1機(jī)能出現(xiàn)問(wèn)題可能會(huì)影響人類(lèi)的行為習(xí)慣，包括導(dǎo)致肥胖的過(guò)度飲食行為。據(jù)研究小組負(fù)責(zé)人Paolo Sassone-Corsi表示，未來(lái)有可能會(huì)通過(guò)調(diào)控該機(jī)能來(lái)治療一些新陳代謝紊亂。