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Night eating affects weight gain


Fennel salad © Milous | Dreamstime.com

The time you eat plays a significant role both in your energy levels and metabolism.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda it is recommended that the biggest meals are consumed during the early part of the day, breakfast and lunch, and something lighter early in the evening. 

One of the reasons for eating the bigger meals earlier in the day is that the body's functions are at their peak.  As the day goes by, especially after 7 pm,  digestion starts slowing down preparing for the next phase, that of cleansing and detoxifying the body from all it has accumulated throughout the daily functions.

Now, researchers are demonstrating that night eating plays a role in gaining weight.   As recently reported on BBC News, a team from Northwestern University, Illinois, found that when you eat, not just how you eat, could make a big difference. The study, in the journal Obesity, is said to be the first to show directly that there is a "wrong" time to eat.  Recent studies have suggested that circadian rhythms, the body's internal clock, have a role in how our bodies use up energy. However, this had been difficult to definitively pin down.

Deanna Arble, lead author of the study, said: "One of our research interests is shift workers, who tend to be overweight. "This got us thinking that eating at the wrong time of day might be contributing to weight gain." "Better timing of meals could be a critical element in slowing the ever-increasing incidence of obesity." The scientists now hope they can find out more about how the process works. It is thought that sleep, hormones and body temperature all play a part in how we gain weight.
 

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, Seattle Natural Health Examiner

Lilian Mavridara M.A. is a Life Wellness Coach, Holistic Health Practitioner and Author who synthesizes natural health with eastern and western thought, to educate and offer tools and techniques that transform life and wellness. You may contact her at naturalhealthexaminer@gmail.com .

Comments

  • Health Habits 2 years ago

    The study neglects to mention the types of food being eaten by shift workers during their nighttime labor.

    Somehow I don't think the vending machines and company cafeterias are serving many healthy options.

    I am guessing that shift workers eat a lot of sugar, trans fat and caffeine while they work the graveyard shift

  • kay 2 years ago

    Hello,

    Do you know where to find different chinese medecine as Snake wine ? I already bought this one:
    asiansnakewine.com

    But I am now looking for different types of natural medecine (for example with LIZARD inside the bottle).
    Thanks for help.

    (by the way I found your website on Google when looking for Snake wine bottles)

  • Seattle NHE 2 years ago

    Kay, I would recommend finding an Acupuncturist or Herbalist where you live and ask them for the remedies you are looking.

    Health Habit, I would agree with you. We do not know exactly what shift workers are eating nor the stress levels they are under. At this point, stress is a well known factor affecting hormones and metabolism,and indeed the weight gain issue is complex.

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