Is it true that there is harmful at night?

One of the most common nutrition myths is harmful before bedtime. Some believe that food after 18:00 contributes to weight gain. We decided to check if this opinion has a scientific basis.

The idea of ​​what is not in the evening is not popular in Russia and abroad. There are even several proverbs on this topic, for example: "Sure breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to the enemy" (by the way, it is attributed to Suvorov) or "Breakfast like a king, have lunch like a prince, and have dinner as a beggar". The opinion that after 6 pm it is better to refuse to eat food, you can Meet on medical portals, resources About diets, c Blogs At Zen. Users divided personal experience limiting food meals in the evening on Portals reviews.

First of all, it is worth noting that the processes in the body depend not on the exact time of the day, but on our internal circadian rhythms (or biological clock). They are associated with the change of day and night, but there will be no big difference in the body at 17:30 or at 18:30. In addition, biorhythms are associated with light day, and it changes depending on the time of year. No authoritative scientific research justifying the line at 18:00, after which it was supposedly impossible to eat. In some English -speaking sources The same myth prohibits eating after 20:00. Therefore, this is more commonly error than a scientific fact.

As for food before going to bed, everything is more complicated here. It is believed that food at night contributes to weight gain, since metabolism slows down during sleep, accordingly, the calories obtained are processed more slowly. However, scientific studies do not confirm this: the rate of metabolism in a dream is almost no different from the state of wakefulness, our body needs a lot of energy to maintain life. 

Some Experiments The mice really showed that the animals that took food before bedtime gained weight. However, such studies in public gave a different result. British nutritionists and nutritionists Studied The influence of eating after 20:00 on the weight of adolescents and did not find any significant relationship. Adults also Not observed Direct relationship between late meals and weight. However, scientists note that people who eat after 20:00 are prone to more calories, which, in turn, can lead to weight gain. Besides, They think Scientists, often eating late in the evening - this is not a belated dinner, but an additional snack, often not the most useful food, but this can be the cause of obesity. 

Nevertheless, sometimes such a snack even helps to lose weight. American scientists for four weeks Observing Behind two groups of people whose diet was only distinguished by the fact that one of the groups ate a plate of flakes with milk an hour and a half after dinner. It turned out that the participants in this group reduced daily consumption by almost 400 kcal, since the next day they woke up more well -fed and did not overeat during the day.

A certain justification of the line at 18:00 (or 20:00) is in one of the most popular methods of weight loss - interval starvation. According to this diet, it is possible only for eight hours a day, and the remaining 16 from food must be refrained. However, in this case, these figures are very average: it all depends on the regime of the day of a particular person. That is, if you have breakfast at 6 in the morning, you should finish after 14:00, and if your first meal is at 14:00 (for example, you refuse breakfast), then you can safely eat until 22:00. 

Nutritionists They saythat it is better to focus on eating good during the day - this will help to avoid nightly unhealthy snacks. If you really want to eat, you should not overcome hunger, this will not lead to anything good. It is better to have a healthy snack at hand, such as carrot sticks. They will not harm the figure, unlike chips.

Nevertheless, there really can be before bedtime harmful In some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, for example, with acid reflux. In this case, you should not eat less than three hours before bedtime (however, it is better to consult a doctor on this subject). There are also some researchConfirming that later snacks have a poor effect on the quality of sleep in healthy people.

Thus, there are no reliable scientific research that would testify that food meals after 18:00 (or any other time) lead to weight gain. The total calorie consumption per day is much more important. Late snacks can contribute to obesity if it is an additional intake of high -calorie food, such as sweets or chips. Some diets really provide for a refusal of food after a certain time, but this time is individual and depends on the daily routine of each person. In some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, food before bedtime is really harmful, but this moment should be clarified with the attending physician. 

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