In the comic strip “Blondie,” the cartoonist Chic Young often featured Blondie’s goofy husband Dagwood Bumstead. Frequently, Dagwood built himself a towering sandwich as a midnight snack. Now, new research suggests that Dagwood should have had his sandwich much earlier in the evening. A late dinner or snack may be metabolically unwise.
Studying Early vs. Late Dinner:
To learn about the consequences of eating a late dinner, the researchers recruited 20 young healthy volunteers (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, online June 11, 2020). Ten men and ten women ate dinner at either 6 pm or 10 pm based on random assignments the investigators issued. Then all went to bed at 11 pm. The researchers measured a number of factors: blood glucose every hour overnight, insulin, triglycerides, cortisol, free fatty acids and fat oxidation–a way of determining fat burning. They also conducted “polysomnography,” a way of studying sleep.
At a later date, those who had eaten early got the late dinner and those who had eaten later dined at 6. The investigators provided identical meals so that timing would be the only important variable. Then, the scientists repeated the measurements to see if eating late would have any impact.
Eating Late Increased Blood Sugar:
People who ate the late dinner had higher peak blood glucose levels, burned less fat and produced more cortisol in their bloodstreams overnight. Presumably, doing this experiment did not harm them. The investigators worry, however, about people who might follow this pattern on a regular basis.
According to the authors,
“These effects might promote obesity if they recur chronically.”
