The daily routine of our times, divided between work, commuting in traffic and family commitments, all too often leads to eating dinner very late. However, eating after 11pm can have significant effects on health.
Several studies, including one published in Nutrition & Diabetes, show that dinner time can affect not only body weight, but also the risk of developing diabetes and other chronic diseases.
Eating late in the evening can affect blood sugar levels. In fact, eating late in the evening, when melatonin levels are high, alters blood sugar control, especially in people who have a genetic variant linked to a high risk of this type of diabetes.
Altering blood glucose control, which is compromised in people with diabetes, are several factors such as diet, physical activity, being overweight, smoking and alcohol, but also mealtimes versus sleep and melatonin levels (sleep hormone, released mainly when light falls, which helps control sleep-wake cycles).
The human body is driven by the circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle that regulates many physiological functions. These rhythms are orchestrated by clock genes and the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the main biological clock or ‘master clock’. Sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that manages the entry of glucose into cells, fluctuates significantly during the day and it is perfectly normal for the body to be more responsive to insulin during the day than at night.
Eating late, therefore, complicates glucose management and encourages the accumulation of sugar in the blood for hours on end until the moment of waking up. Added to this is the issue of sleep disturbances and digestive problems. The hunger and satiety hormones, such as ghrelin and leptin, become imbalanced when one eats dinner late at night, stimulating appetite and reducing the feeling of satiety. This imbalance, combined with decreased insulin sensitivity, facilitates the accumulation of fat, especially visceral fat and, in the long term, can lead to obesity and cardiovascular problems.
The secret to feeling good and living in harmony with natural processes is to align meals with biological rhythms, optimising digestion and metabolism. Therefore, it is better to eat dinner early, and in any case no later than 9 p.m., and to prefer light, nutritious and digestible meals for dinner. Going to bed after giving the stomach time to do its work means going to bed lighter, prepared for a good night's rest and without the hassles of reflux.
All necessary conditions for waking up refreshed and full of energy the next day: it is important not to eat immediately before going to sleep, but to leave at least a few hours between the last meal and bedtime. It is also recommended to leave about 12 hours between dinner and breakfast the next morning to prevent blood sugar levels from rising just before bedtime or falling too low before the morning meal.
(Article by Dr Cristina Giusto)
