Eating More Calories after 5pm May Have Harmful Consequences on Health: Study Finds
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According to a study published in open access format by the Nature Group journal Nutrition & Diabetes, consuming more than 45% of our daily calorie intake after 5 p.m. is associated with an increase in glucose levels, with the harmful consequences that this has for health, regardless of the individual's weight and body fat.
"Maintaining high levels of glucose over long periods of time can have implications including a higher risk of progressing to type 2 diabetes, an increase in cardiovascular risk due to the damage that high glucose levels do to blood vessels, and increased chronic inflammation, which aggravates cardiovascular and metabolic damage," said Díaz Rizzolo, postdoctoral researcher and member of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Columbia.
The study included 26 participants between the ages of 50 and 70 who were overweight or obese, and had prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. The participants' glucose tolerance levels were compared, and they were divided into two groups: early eaters, who consumed most of their daily calories before the evening, and late eaters, who consumed 45% or more of their calories after 5 p.m. The two groups consumed the same amount of calories and the same foods during the day, but did so at different times. The participants used a mobile app to record their meals in real time.
The main finding of the study is that the late eaters had a poorer tolerance of glucose, regardless of their weight or the composition of their diet. It also found that they tended to eat larger amounts of carbohydrates and fats during the evening.
Díaz Rizzolo explained that "the body's ability to metabolize glucose is limited at night, because the secretion of insulin is reduced, and our cells' sensitivity to this hormone declines due to the circadian rhythm, which is determined by a central clock in our brain that is coordinated with the hours of daylight and night."
Reference: Díaz-Rizzolo, D.A., Santos Baez, L.S., Popp, C.J. et al. Late eating is associated with poor glucose tolerance, independent of body weight, fat mass, energy intake and diet composition in prediabetes or early onset type 2 diabetes. Nutr. Diabetes 14, 90 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41387-024-00347-6
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