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Eating Before Bedtime and Other “Dangerous” Practices
Pamela A. Popper, President
Wellness Forum Health
There is no end to the new rules people are supposed to follow in order to achieve optimal health. Eat only three times per day. Fast for 16 hours daily. No coffee. Smoothies will kill you. Bread is bad – it’s processed! There are some foods you should eat every day and some you should never have. Healthy people NEVER eat anything made with white flour. Don’t eat before you go to bed or terrible things will happen to you – you may die early! I could go on, but you get the idea. The message some healthcare professionals promote is that health requires constant diligence and commitment, and even while trying hard to do the right thing, you could miss something and eat a banana before going to bed with potentially disastrous consequences.
I decided to do some research on whether eating before bedtime is dangerous and must confess a personal interest in this. I am hungry late at night and have found that I can’t sleep when hungry, so I do eat something close to bedtime. If it is true that this practice leads to early death, I figured it was time to find out. I decided that if the risks were significant, such as reducing my lifespan by a decade or so, then I’d figure out a way to sleep with my stomach growling.
The argument for avoiding nighttime eating is that there are data showing that humans experience diurnal variations in glucose tolerance, gastric emptying, and resting metabolic rate. Some studies show that the thermic response to food is lowest at nighttime,[1] and that nighttime eating can lead to higher calorie intake, contributing to weight gain. Thus, some “experts” tell people that they should not eat at night.
But not all studies concur, and it seems that some of the studies cited by those to advise against nighttime eating include populations of shift workers, those with Night Eating Syndrome, and people who consume the majority of their daily calories after dinner. These types of people have many health issues, including obesity, that result from their abnormal patterns of eating, and which cannot be attributed to eating a small snack before bedtime. The question remains, what is the effect of a healthy small snack prior to bedtime for people who are in generally good health?
A literature search identified an analysis showing that nighttime eating may be beneficial for some people. The authors state that it is true that eating large meals or the majority of daily calories late at night can increase the risk of obesity and other health issues. But they also state that research shows that this is not true if people eat small, nutrient-dense, low-calorie foods at night.[2] The article cites studies showing that eating the right foods after dinner might actually lead to better health outcomes. One study showed that adults who ate cereal with low-fat milk reduced overall calorie intake, which led to more weight loss.[3] Another study showed that eating whey protein, casein, or carbohydrate right before going to sleep resulted in higher metabolism upon waking than consuming a no-calorie placebo.[4]
A study that looked at the effect of nighttime consumption of whey protein, casein, or carbohydrate combined with exercise training on sedentary obese women showed that nighttime feeding did not affect insulin sensitivity and did not interfere with the positive effects of exercise, which included increased lean mass and strength, decreased body fat, and improved mood.[5]
For type 1 diabetics, eating before bedtime may be an important habit to form since nocturnal hypoglycemia is a concern. Bedtime eating has been shown to reduce hypoglycemic episodes for diabetics,[6] with those who did not have nighttime snacks having the most hypoglycemic episodes.[7]
Here’s my take, and I’ve been careful to consider the fact that I should not base my analysis on the fact that I prefer to eat something before bedtime. There are some people who should eat something before bed (type 1 diabetics). There is no significant risk associated with eating a small, healthy meal before bedtime, and there may be a small benefit. People who want to eat something late at night should not stop; those who prefer not to eat before bedtime should not take up the habit. But health professionals should stop scaring people into thinking that terrible consequences will result from having a late-night small, healthy meal.
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[1] Romon M., Boulenguez C., Frimat P. “Circadian of diet-induced thermogenesis.” Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1993 Apr;57(4):476–480.
[2] Kinsey AW, Ormsbee MJ. “The Health Impact of Nighttime Eating: Old and New Perspectives.” Nutrients 2015 Apr;7(4):264-2662
[3] Waller SM, Vander Wal JS, Klurfeld DM et al. “Evening ready-to-eat cereal consumption contributes to weight management” J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 2004 Aug;23(4):316–321
[4] Madzima TA, Panton LB, Fretti SK, Kinsey AW, Ormsbee MJ. “Night-time consumption of protein or carbohydrate results in increased morning resting energy expenditure in active college-aged men.” Br. J. Nutr. 2014 Jan;111(1):71–77.
[5] Ormsbee MJ, Kinsey AW, Eddy WR et al. “The influence of nighttime feeding of carbohydrate or protein combined with exercise training on appetite and cardiometabolic risk in young obese women.” Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 2015 Jan;40(1):37–45.
[6] Detlofson I, Kroon M, Aman J. “Oral bedtime cornstarch supplementation reduces the risk for nocturnal hypoglycaemia in young children with type 1 diabetes.” Acta Paediatr. 1999 Jun;88(6):595–597.
[7] Kalergis M, Schiffrin A, Gougeon R, Jones PJH, Yale JF. “Impact of bedtime snack composition on prevention of nocturnal hypoglycemia in adults with type 1 diabetes undergoing intensive insulin management using lispro insulin before meals: A randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial.” Diabetes Care. 2003 Jan;26(1):9–15.