Eating little in the evening is better, while eating a lot is not good for you, science explains it: you end up taking up too much energy and calories and the quality of the diet is lowered. An English study from Ulster University, presented at the European and International Conference on Obesity (ECOICO 2020) explains that there is a link between unbalanced evening food consumption and a higher total energy intake, as well as a lower quality of diet.
Because it’s better to eat little in the evening
In recent years, the scientific debate on the ways and times of food consumption and how they can influence metabolism and other physiological processes has intensified. Feelings of hunger follow a precise daily rhythm and they are often more intense during the day, and towards the evening, after consuming energy between work and sport. This phenomenon could influence both the type of food we eat and the amount of food we ingest. Often indeed we are led to eat more in the evening than at lunch and at breakfast, also following the habits of the Italian diet compared to that of northern Europe. But the British study reveals that it’s not good.
The team selected a group of 1177 adults aged 19-64 using data recorded in the UK’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey covering the years 2012-2017. Subjects were grouped into quartiles (4 25% equal groups) based on the proportion of the value of daily introduction of energy into their body (EI – Energy Intake) after 18:00, from the lowest with less than 31.4%, to the highest whose evening drinking accounted for more than 48.6% of their EI. Diet quality was assessed from food diaries kept by participants using the Nutrient Rich Food Index, which ranks foods by the ratio of the important nutrients they contain to their energy content.
Eating in the evening greatly affects your diet
In the entire sample group, evening meals accounted for an average of nearly 40% (39.8%) of daily energy. Diet quality was found to differ between quartiles of participants who consumed the majority of their EI in the evening: these had a significantly worse score on the Nutrient Rich Foods Index compared to those of the rest of the sample groups.
Thus the authors comment that they state: “Our results suggest that the consumption of a lower percentage of EI in the evening may be associated with lower daily energy intakewhile consuming a higher percentage of energy intake in the evening may be associated with a lower diet quality score.
When and how to eat in the evening
The timing of energy intake therefore can be a important element in slimming and in a diet to lose weight. And it is a modifiable behavior on the part of people, but precise health indications are needed.
Further analyzes are now needed to examine whether the distribution of energy intake and the types of food eaten in the evening are also responsible for body composition and cardiometabolic health.
(Photo StockSnap pixabay)
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