How many of you get the afternoon drowsies? You eat a decent lunch and within an hour, you feel like you need to take a nap. If you work at a desk or behind the wheel, you find it hard to keep your eyes open and you begin yawning a lot.

This is the reason that many experts recommend eating your smallest meal of the day at noon. But, do you also get the drowsies after eating a big breakfast or after dinner?

For breakfast, you scarf up some pancakes or waffles drenched in syrup, perhaps some eggs, bacon or sausage, a glass of juice with your cup of coffee and some toast. By the time you get to work, you wish you had slept another hour or not stayed up so late.

Did you know there is a good and natural reason for most people feeling like this and it’s not always due to spikes in blood glucose levels?

Take a look around the animal kingdom. After most animals eat, they rest. Cows, horses, deer and other grazers will spend the morning grazing and browsing and then they find a shady place to rest.

We’ve all watched videos of a pride of lions hunting down a zebra or wildebeest and then gorging themselves on their fresh kill and then what do they do? They usually find a shady spot and rest. The same is true for most carnivores and herbivores.

Have you wondered why this seems to be a common trait among most of God’s creatures, including us humans?

There is a simple biological reason.

When you eat, your stomach sends out a signal to the brain that it has food. Like a master computer, the brain sends out signals that increase the production of digestive fluids, acids and bile, to help digest the food.

As the food begins to digest and pass from the stomach into the small intestine, the brain sends out more signals to shunt most of your blood flow away from your muscles (arms and legs) and concentrate the flow of blood to the stomach, small and large intestine. In the intestines is where the many nutrients that are broken down, are picked up by the blood stream and taken to the parts of the body that needs them.

The only way the brain can shunt more blood to the digestive tract to absorb needed nutrients is for the body to rest, hence the drowsies. Without realizing it, some cultures regularly had a rest period after the noon meal. In Mexico, it was referred to as siesta time.

Did you know that the more physically active you are after eating a meal, the less nutrients your body will absorb and sometimes that lack of proper nutrient absorption can lead to putting on excess fat?

Knowing this is why I disagree with most nutritionists who recommend eating a big breakfast. Yes, your body has been fasting overnight while you were sleeping and yes, you do need some good nutrition, but you don’t need a big breakfast. Why? Because if you eat a big breakfast and then head to work, your body will remain physically active and absorb fewer nutrients from what you ate and most of it will pass out as waste.

As a biologist who has studied human and animal physiology and behavior, I recommend eating a light healthy breakfast, a small healthy mid-morning snack, a light healthy lunch, a small healthy mid-afternoon snack and then have a larger, healthy dinner, since most people have time to rest after eating. Chances are, if you follow this pattern, you’ll find that you’re not as bothered by the morning or afternoon drowsies.