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CHICAGO – A new study suggests that late-night meals can be detrimental to heart health.
The research, presented here today (November 10) at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, revealed that eating later in the evening was associated with an increased risk of disease heart.
In the United States, people now have a "late lifestyle": they fall asleep later and fall asleep less, said Nour Makarem, lead author of the study, a postdoctoral fellow in cardiology from the College of Physicians and Vagelos surgeons from Columbia University. And with this delayed lifestyle, you also see higher rates of eating late at night, she said. [9 New Ways to Keep Your Heart Healthy]
Makarem and his colleagues felt that the timing of these meals could play a role in the rising rates of obesity, hypertension and diabetes seen in recent years.
So, they started to see if that was the case. In this study, researchers used a database called Latin American Health Study of the Hispanic Community to study more than 12,700 Hispanic and Latino adults aged 18 to 76 years.
(Although the study focuses only on a specific population of the United States, the Hispanic and Latin American population, "we expect to see similar associations in other US populations," Makarem said. Indeed, several studies conducted abroad have shown that the timing of meals can be associated with the development of risk factors for heart disease, she added.
In the study, the team examined data from two different days during which participants reported their eating habits and compared them to measures such as blood pressure and blood glucose.
They found that more than half of the study participants consumed 30% or more of their daily calories after 18 hours. These participants had higher fasting blood sugar levels (measuring the amount of sugar in the blood when a person had not eaten for hours), higher levels of insulin (the hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in the blood), higher rates of HOMA-IR (an insulin resistance marker) and higher blood pressure than participants who reported consuming less than 30% of their daily calories after 18 hours
A high blood sugar level may be considered a sign of prediabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic. (Prediabetes means that a person's blood sugar levels are abnormally high, but not enough to be considered diabetes.) Indeed, researchers found that those who consumed 30% or more of their daily calories after 18h. 19% more likely to develop prediabetes than those who ate earlier in the day. Seventy percent of people with prediabetes develop type 2 diabetes, a risk factor for heart disease, Makarem said. [Where Is Heart Disease Risk Highest and Lowest? (Maps)]
These same participants were also 23% more likely to develop high blood pressure, compared to people who ate earlier in the day. These associations are especially common among women, Makarem added.
The end of night link
The study revealed that a link between meal times and the risk of certain health problems in a person; this has not proven cause and effect.
However, Makarem said that one of the possible explanations for this link is that problems can arise when our biological clocks are not synchronized with our environment. Almost every cell in our body can read the hour and work in a cycle of about 24 hours. A small part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus serves as the master clock of the body. It receives external light signals (ideally from the sun) and sets the rest of the clocks in our cells accordingly, telling us when to wake up, sleep and eat. Makarem said.
"These clocks are regulated by exposure to bright light but also by behaviors, particularly food signals," Makarem said. So, when we eat at unconventional times – for example, by consuming more calories at night – the body's clocks may no longer be aligned with the main clock, which can lead to metabolic problems and increase the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, she said.
"The evidence is consistent enough to say that eating more, later in the day, seems to be metabolically worse," said Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. attended the Makarem conference today. These problems are due to the fact that "you are not eating at the best time for your circadian system," she told Live Science.
The results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Originally published on Science live.
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