How mealtime affects health

Many people want to eat healthy, but it is so difficult - go on a diet. What if change is not what you eat, and mealtimes? Studies conducted on mice have proved that mealtimes influences weight and metabolism. The secret to better health is to increase the time between meals during the day.

Several years ago, Professor Satchidananda Panda (Satchidananda Panda) from the world famous Salk Institute in California showed that mice that were fed a fatty meal every 8 hours were healthier and leaner than mice that ate the same food, but when wish. In more recent studies, scientists stretched "hungry" c periods of 12 to 15 hours. And once again we found that mice that were fed every 12 hours were more healthy and slim than their counterparts who consumed the same amount of food, but at any time.

But will the meal times affect people's health? To test speculation, the transfer of BBC Trust Me I'm a Doctor invited 16 volunteers to participate in 10-week study conducted Dr. Jonathan Johnston (Jonathan Johnston) at the University of Surrey.

At the beginning of the study, volunteers measured the amount of fat, blood sugar, lipids (fats) in the blood and cholesterol. They were then randomly divided into two teams: the "red" and "blue."

"Blue" had to eat as usual. A "red" scientists asked to adhere to the usual diet, but to move the breakfast for 1.5 hours later and dinner - 1.5 hours earlier. This means that 3 extra hours they had not eaten in days. Each kept a diary of food and sleep, to ensure that they were eating the same amount of food as usual.

Many studies show that prolonged periods without food have a positive effect on the body. In addition, the body in different ways to cope with calories at different times of the day. As Johnston says, the worst of times for the use of sugar and fat - late at night, when the levels of these substances in the blood, and so high.

Presenter of the Trust Me I'm a Doctor Chris Van Tyulleken (Chris Van Tulleken) spent on the experience myself, passed the blood test in the morning, then had breakfast at 10am eggs with sausage and bacon. Immediately after eating he again took a blood test and within a few hours, blood was taken every half hour.

12:00 later, at 22:00, Chris had dinner in the same set of products, which is eaten for breakfast. And again in a few hours it took blood every half an hour, before he went to bed.

Blood tests showed that after breakfast blood sugar levels fairly quickly returned to normal, the level of fat in the blood started to fall after about three hours. In the evening after a meal blood sugar levels remained high for a long time, and fat levels continued to rise even after 4 hours after eating.

So Johnston rights, our body does not like it when we eat a lot at night. Midnight snacks worse effect on our body than food eaten earlier in the day. So it is necessary to adhere to the proverb: eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, have supper like a pauper. If you want to eat something fatty and fried, eat it in the morning.

Let's go back to the main experience: what happened to the subjects who participated in the experiment for 10 weeks?

It turned out that the volunteers of the "red" group, which later had breakfast and dinner earlier, on average, lost more fat. Blood tests showed a significant reduction in sugar and cholesterol levels compared to the results of the "blue" who ate normally.

Maybe you do not get to increase the time intervals between meals. It is not always compatible with work and personal schedule. But you can definitely do is to avoid eating cheeseburgers in the night.