
We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how coffee may well help you live longer, with one paper suggesting those benefits are limited to morning drinkers.
And now, longevity experts say there’s a similar curfew for our dinner too.
Speaking to GQ, Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, said there’s no set hour to stop eating – it’s more to do with when your bedtime is.
When should I stop eating?
The director told GQ that we should stop eating three hours before our bedtime.
That’s because eating any later can disrupt our sleep (poor sleep, especially in middle age, has been linked to conditions like dementia), and may change how our body burns energy, he said.
But he added that the longest-living people he’s tracked stopped eating 12 hours before breakfast the following day.
Say you’re an eight-hour sleeper; that might mean you stop eating at four hours before you sleep and have breakfast at once, or that you stop eating three hours before sleep and wait an hour after waking to have brekkie.
Gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz told gut health company ZOE that the endpoint should be even earlier if you have acid reflux ― he puts it at four hours.
The Cleveland Clinic spoke to registered dietitian Alexis Supan about the topic, who said that when we eat late at night, we are “going against” our body’s circadian rhythm.
She also recommended snacking on lighter fare later in the day, like steamed veggies and Greek yoghurt – especially if you have an unbeatable craving past the approved window.
Because “our insulin resistance kicks up at night”, late-night snacks ― which sometimes tend to be unhealthier ― are more likely to be stored as fat, she added.
Why do I get so hungry at night?
For some reason, I get a deep, visceral craving for Korean fried chicken at around 11pm most evenings (I only respond to it occasionally, okay?).
According to a 2013 paper, though, my Circadian rhythm is to blame for the burning desire.
One of the study’s authors, Steven Shea, told Science Daily that “because of the internal circadian regulation of appetite, we have a natural tendency to skip breakfast in favour of larger meals in the evening”.
That’s because, throughout most of history, our bodies needed to use food as efficiently as possible to store fat. That’s why we crave “sweet, starchy and salty foods in the evenings” it seems.