Eating Your Main Meal After This Time May Wreck Havoc On Your Blood Sugar

One of the (very few) divides between me and my boyfriend centres on when to eat dinner. 

I’m of the 5:00-ish persuasion; he’d pick up his knife and fork at 8 pm if left to his own devices. 

I don’t know if that’s an Irish vs English thing, or if his being a southern English man has anything to do with it. But according to one study, only one of us (me, obviously) is right. 

Researchers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and Columbia University recently published a study in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes that showed eating a large meal after a certain time can wreak havoc on our glucose (blood sugar) levels.

What time is that?

If you consume more than 45% of your calories (so almost half your daily intake of food) after 5 pm, you’ll end up with higher glucose levels, their data suggests. 

Okay, okay, that doesn’t necessarily mean eating dinner after 5 will affect your body’s ability to break down sugars ― but a hefty meal, or dinner and dessert, especially if it’s the main food you’ve eaten that day, may well. 

Speaking to UOC, Dr Diana Díaz Rizzolo, who co-authored the study, said: “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.” 

This is separate from previous concerns people had about late eating, which was straightforward weight gain. 

Dr Rizzolo suggested this may be because “the body’s ability to metabolise 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.”

So... can I keep eating dinner after 5?

Yes, provided it’s not way more than you ate for the remainder of the day (given all of it is in moderation, of course). 

Dr Rizzolo suggests that “the highest levels of calorie intake during the day should be at breakfast and lunch, instead of at teatime and dinner,” however. 

Still, it’s worth noting the study only involved 26 participants, and the researchers themselves admit more research among a more diverse group of people will be needed to firmly establish the link. 

That’s not going to stop me from gloating about the existing results to my partner though...