Eating a late dinner may contribute to weight gain and high blood sugar, according to a small study from the Endocrine Society. It is estimated that more than 2.1 billion adults are overweight or obese, making health complications such as diabetes and high blood pressure more likely. Some research suggests that consuming calories later in the day is associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome.
“This study sheds new light on how eating a late dinner worsens glucose tolerance and reduces the amount of fat burned. The effect of eating late varies widely from person to person and depends on their usual bedtime,” says the study's corresponding author, Jonathan C. Jun, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, M.d. “This shows that some people may be more vulnerable to eating late than others. If the metabolic effects we observed with a single meal continue to occur chronically, eating late could lead to consequences such as diabetes or obesity.”
The researchers studied 20 healthy volunteers (10 men and 10 women) to see how they metabolized dinner eaten at 10 p.m., compared with 6 p.m. The volunteers all went to bed at 11 p.m. The researchers found that blood sugar levels were higher and the amount of burned fat ingested was lower at the later dinner, even when the same meal was given at two different times.
“On average, peak glucose levels after a late dinner were about 18 percent higher, and the amount of fat burned at night decreased by about 10 percent compared to eating an earlier dinner. The effects we've seen in healthy volunteers may be more pronounced in obese or diabetic people, who already have compromised metabolism," said Chenjuan Gu, MD, Ph.D., the study's lead author, of the Johns Hopkins University.
This isn't the first study to show the effects of late eating, but it's one of the most detailed. Participants wore activity trackers, had hourly blood samples while staying in a lab, underwent sleep and body fat scans, and ate foods containing non-radioactive labels so that the rate of fat burning (oxidation) could be determined.
"We need to do more experiments to see if these effects persist over time and if they are caused more by behavior (such as sleeping shortly after a meal) or by the body's circadian rhythm," Jun said. /P>
