You come back from an evening’s socialising, from some event or you are just late back from work. If I’m famished I’ll have a meal and then go to bed. In fact I’m probably doing one of the worse things possible where my health and expanding waist line is concerned. I should not eat late at night according to some new research.
Namni Goel, Research Associate Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA has been studying the impact of late night feasting on a number of health issues including weight gain and changes to our blood cholesterol and insulin levels. Her research indicates that it is better for us to eat our last meal before 7 p.m. if we want to remain as healthy as possible. She has been examining through clinical research what happens when we shift our eating habits to later in the day compared to other times such as during the day or early evening. It offers some valuable insights into how our body clock can influence the benefits of feeding at different times, especially when we delay our consumption of food. The research was presented at SLEEP 2017, the 31st annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS) in Boston, earlier in June.
This study involves only nine healthy adults so it is quite small-scale and suffers from some statistical rigour because of the low numbers involved. The study involved all subjects undergoing two different eating regimes. There was condition involving daytime eating with three meals and two snacks between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. for eight weeks and the other with delayed eating of three meals and two snacks but eating from noon to 11 p.m. for a similar time length. There was a two-week washout period between conditions to make sure there was no carry over effect. To make sure all other conditions for the patients was similar, they were required to sleep between 11 p.m. to 9 a.m.
There was some weight gain when the subjects ate later in the evening compared to when they ate during the daytime. They also observed some other troubling issues. The study looked at a series of measures concerned with various elements that would be associated with a negative metabolic profile. These included raised levels of insulin, fasting glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. These elements were certainly ‘worse’ for those delaying their eating.
They also measured the Respiratory Quotient (RQ). RQ is the ratio of carbon dioxide produced to oxygen consumed by the body. It tells us to some extent what is happening to energy compounds in food and when they are being metabolised. The higher the value for RQ the lower the level of metabolism. When eating was delayed, the RQ value rose which suggested that the subjects were using up carbohydrates rather than lipids. The study team found that eating earlier might prevent overeating in the evening and at night.
From her perspective, the lead author :-
“We know from our sleep loss studies that when you’re sleep deprived, it negatively affects weight and metabolism in part due to late night eating, but now these early findings, which control for sleep, give a more comprehensive picture of the benefits of eating earlier in the day.”
“Eating later can promote a negative profile of weight, energy, and hormone markers – such as higher glucose and insulin, which are implicated in diabetes, and cholesterol and triglycerides, which are linked with cardiovascular problems and other health conditions.”
In all seriousness, it might mean the end of the late-night kebab !
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