Eating before going to bed will not raise the blood sugar level

TUESDAY, Jan. 22, 2019 (HealthDay News) – Avoiding eating before going to bed will probably not help your blood sugar and your health, suggests a new study.

Some experts say that not eating for two hours before going to bed helps prevent hyperglycemia and related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. But there is no clear evidence to support this theory.

In search of answers, researchers badyzed three years of health data from more than 1,550 healthy adults of middle and older age in Japan. Two-thirds were over 65 years old.

About 16% of men and 7.5% of women fell asleep less than two hours after dinner.

Over the three years, there was no significant change in participants' HbA1c levels – a long-term measure of average blood glucose as a reliable indicator of future health risks.

The mean rate of HbA1c was 5.2% in the first year and 5.58% in the second and third years in the normal range. There was no significant difference between men and women.

The researchers found that weight, blood pressure, blood lipids (triglycerides), levels of physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption were more badociated with changes in HbA1c levels. only at the time between meal and bedtime.

The study was published online Jan. 21 in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health.

As this was an observational study, the researchers could not determine the cause. They also did not know the precise timing or content of people's dinners, which could have affected the results.

And because the traditional Japanese diet contains a lot of vegetables and soup and the portion size is small, the results may not apply to other countries, according to Su Su Maw, Ph.D. student at Graduate School of Health Sciences of Okayama University in Japan and colleagues.

"We should pay more attention to healthy portions and foods, get enough sleep and avoid smoking, alcohol consumption and overweight, these variables have a deeper influence on the metabolic process," they wrote. in a press release.

More information

The US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more to do with preventing diabetes.