Best of: Do carbohydrates make you fat at night?

Should we give up the late pizza? Opinions diverge. Photo: Pexels

I have girlfriends who do not usually consume carbohydrates after 18 hours. If we eat together, then only high in protein such as fish, lean meat or chicken can be served on their plates. This combined with a salad ("But please do not sauce!").

To each his own: As long as I can still eat my pizza, no one moans about it or at most a little greedy, I'm crazy. Nevertheless, it makes me curious whether carbohydrates eat really thick at night. Suspicion: Due to lack of exercise, they can no longer be used and are therefore intended to block weight loss.

Truth or fairy tale?

But what is carbohydrate anyway? In addition to fats and proteins, they are part of the three macronutrients and consist of sugar molecules that enter the cells through the blood and serve as fuel for our muscles and our brain. "Carbohydrates are absorbed by the body at different rates depending on their length of chain," says nutritional psychologist Sara Barcos. The short-chain carbohydrates cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, which causes the release of insulin, a hormone that infiltrates the sugar in the cells, causing a renewed hunger sensation. In this sense, protein-containing meals can last longer.

But is it important that we eat carbohydrates in the morning, at noon or in the evening?

There is no clear answer from a nutritional point of view. Some people think that the body has an internal clock. "The moment you eat carbohydrates affects the effect of growth hormone and the release of insulin, which influence weight in the evening," says Professor Nicolai Worm, author of the publication " The Flexi diet: Lose weight with a low Mediterranean rate.

Better Than Any Diet

But lovers of pasta, rice and bread can also argue: for example, two groups were compared to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in a study six months. Half of the subjects consumed carbohydrates throughout the day, while the other group only consumed them in the evening. The result: the subjects of this last group have greatly diminished.

So why these different results?

"The problem with nutritional studies is that it is an observational study and not, as in medicine, a clinical trial. A study that explores the cause and the effect (causality), says Sara Barcos, where neither the subjects nor the experts know who gets what. "In nutritional studies, participants are usually monitored for a long time. "Although they contain valuable information, observational studies are more biased, according to the expert.

Whether carbohydrates are fattened or not in the evening remains a matter of faith and as individual as our metabolism. As in many other cases, it seems best to pay attention to one's own body feeling. Because it says more than any diet and any study

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Silvia Aeschbach is journalist and editor-in-chief of the supplement "encore!" The "Sunday paper." Her interest has always been social and beauty topics, she also works as a style consultant and author of the bestseller "Getting older for beginners" . "