Charles F. Ehret, whose research into circadian rhythms led to a diet to combat the effects of jet lag, died February 24 at his home in Grayslake, Ill. He was 83.

In 1983, he co-authored “Overcoming Jet Lag,” which outlined a diet that rescheduled meal times and directed the amounts and types of food to be eaten It also specified alternate days of feasting and fasting, abbreviated by the diet’s devotees as “feast/fast, feast/fast.”

“After his book came out, he received calls from all over people planning trips for everyone from President Ronald Reagan to the rock band Aerosmith,” said his son John Ehret.

Ehret was born in the Bronx, and was a graduate of City College of New York. He received a doctorate in zoology from the University of Notre Dame.

During World War II, he served in the Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

Ehret, began working at Argonne National Laboratory, in 1951. It is there he began the research into daily rhythmic activity schedules that led him to a diet that could help the body adjust to time shifts, particularly for shift workers or passengers traveling over several time zones.

“People called him wanting to learn more about his diet, and he’d talk with everyone moms and dads, teachers, heads of corporations, or anyone else interested in what he had to say,” a former colleague and network specialist at Argonne, Ken Groh, said.

Ehret retired in 1988.