It seems like every time we fly to a big lifestyle event in Jamaica, Mexico or even in the USA, we lose most of the first day to pure exhaustion. It seems like such a waste to be spending so much time in our hotel bed… Without other people joining us! No doubt about it, we’ve been attacked by the swinging traveler’s arch-nemisis: Jet lag.

Jet lag is the body’s way of telling us – or rather screaming at us – to slow down. The symptoms of jet lag include extreme exhaustion, insomnia, loss of appetite, and general aches and pains. It occurs when we travel through multiple time zones quickly: the hypothalamus in the brain, which acts as a sort of alarm clock to trigger various body functions such as hunger and sleep, gets inadvertently switched on by the eye perceiving daylight or darkness many hours earlier or later than usual and triggers activities that the rest of the body’s not ready for. About 90 per cent of passengers on flights lasting three or more hours have symptoms of jet lag. There are a number of ways to deal with the effects including setting your watch to your destination time as soon as you board the plane and getting as much natural light as possible on arrival. But what – and when – you eat and drink, could also have an effect.

Researchers at the University of Chicago Argonne National Laboratory have shown that, when following their anti-jet lag diet, individuals are seven times less likely to suffer with jet lag when traveling east and 16 times less likely to have symptoms when traveling west.

The diet, based on the theory that meals act as cue times for the body, involves making modifications to the time, amount, and types of foods consumed in the days preceding a long-haul flight. To follow the diet, start by determining the breakfast time at your destination on your day of arrival. Then start your diet four days before that breakfast time. On days one and three eat a high-protein breakfast and lunch and a high-carbohydrate dinner. Drink coffee between 3pm and 5pm only. On day two fast and consume only salads, soups, and juice. Again, drink no coffee except between the hours of 3pm and 5pm. On day four, fast again; if you drink tea or coffee do so in the morning if traveling west, or between 6pm and 11pm if traveling east. Break the final fast at your destination breakfast time, and continue the day’s meals according to the mealtimes at your destination (don’t drink any alcohol on the plane and, if your flight is long enough, try to sleep until normal breakfast time). Stay awake once you’ve reached your destination and remain active.

Coffee might also help ward off the symptoms of jet lag according to a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. This showed that subjects who took either 300mg of caffeine or 5mg of melatonin the morning before a flight escaped many of the usual adverse effects.

So making a few modifications to your diet might just help with the effects of jet lag. But whatever your preferred method of combating the symptoms, one piece of advice is not to take a nap when you arrive at your destination as this resets your body clock to ‘home time’ and negates all the good work you’ve done up to then.

So a few changes to your diet before flying and perhaps your body won’t be screaming so much as gently nagging you to slow down the next time you fly.