The "golden time" for breakfast and dinner is out! Eat before this time to stay away from many diseases!

"Is it best to finish breakfast before 9 o'clock?" "Is it too late to have dinner at 7 o'clock in the evening?"... Similar questions are also the topics that we receive most from fans on WeChat.

What time do you usually have breakfast? What time do you have dinner? Recently, the "golden time" for breakfast and dinner has been released. If you eat before this time, many diseases will stay away from you!

There is a "golden time" for breakfast

Keep diseases away from you

In July 2023, a large-scale study covering more than 100,000 people was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, showing that people who eat breakfast after 9 a.m. are 59% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who eat breakfast before 8 a.m.! In summary, eat breakfast one hour earlier and before 8 a.m., and type 2 diabetes will stay away from you.

The researchers divided all the participants into three groups based on different breakfast times:

People who eat breakfast before 8 o'clock: 44.77%

People who eat breakfast between 8 and 9:35.78%

People who eat breakfast after 9 o'clock: 19.45%

The results showed that compared with those who ate breakfast before 8 a.m., participants who ate breakfast after 9 a.m. had a significantly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes! The researchers said that the time of eating breakfast affects blood sugar and blood lipid control, as well as insulin levels.

Image source: https://unsplash.com/ Photographer: Brooke Lark

Even more interesting: People who habitually ate breakfast before 8 a.m. tended to be older. And participants who ate breakfast earlier also finished dinner earlier than the other two groups. [1]

There is also a "best time" for dinner

Don't exceed this time.

In 2021, the international authoritative journal "Nutrients" published a Japanese study showing that eating dinner before 8:00 p.m. has lower basic risks. And irregular dinner times will greatly increase the risk of cerebral hemorrhage (hemorrhagic stroke).

The researchers analyzed more than 70,000 people (28,625 men and 43,213 women) aged 40 to 79 years, free of cardiovascular disease and cancer, to examine the association between dinner time and the risk of stroke, coronary heart disease, and total cardiovascular disease death.

The researchers divided everyone into three groups:

① Group who finish dinner before 8pm

② Group who finished dinner after 8pm

③ Group with irregular dinner time every day

The researchers found that people who ate dinner irregularly had a 44% higher risk of dying from hemorrhagic stroke than those who ate dinner before 8:00 p.m. Among obese people, irregular dinner times were positively correlated with total stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, and total cardiovascular disease mortality. [2]

In addition, a study published in the journal Diabetes Care in 2022 also showed that eating dinner too late increases the risk of diabetes. Researchers said that melatonin is mainly released at night, usually reaching a peak about 2 hours before bedtime, and helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle. The melatonin receptor 1B gene is associated with type 2 diabetes. Eating dinner too late can impair blood sugar control and lead to diabetes. [3]

Gao Zhidong, chief physician of gastrointestinal surgery at Peking University People's Hospital, published an article in CCTV Life Circle in May 2023 stating that from the perspective of human endocrine and digestion, combined with modern people's work and rest habits, based on 22:00 as the best time to go to bed, it is more appropriate to have dinner between 18:00 and 19:00, and it is best not to exceed 20:00. [4]

To sum up in one sentence: start eating breakfast at 8 am and finish dinner before 8 pm.

Healthy breakfast and dinner

Remember one principle

1

Breakfast principles: include 4 types of food

Gu Zhongyi, a registered dietitian and director of the Beijing Nutritionist Association, wrote in his WeChat official account “Nutritionist Gu Zhongyi” that an ideal breakfast should include four types of food: cereals and potatoes, vegetables and fruits, animal foods, and milk, beans and nuts. [5]

① Cereals that provide carbohydrates - 100 grams. You can choose whole-wheat steamed bread, whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, etc.

② High-quality protein foods - fish, meat, milk, eggs, tofu pudding, etc.

③Fresh vegetables and fruits - 100 grams of fresh vegetables, 50~100 grams of fresh fruits.

④ An appropriate amount of high-quality nuts - about 10 grams a day is enough. You can eat them for breakfast or as a snack between meals.

Image source: https://unsplash.com/ Photographer: Julius

2

Dinner Principles - Pay Attention to "Two Don'ts"

Nutritionist Gu Zhongyi reminds us that in addition to not eating dinner too late, we should also pay attention to "two don'ts" - don't eat too rich or greasy food.

The energy provided by dinner accounts for 30% to 35% of the total energy of the whole day (calculated based on three meals a day). In fact, it is also a meal that "covers" breakfast and lunch. When arranging dinner, you should adjust the types and intake of dinner food according to the situation of breakfast and lunch to ensure balanced nutrition throughout the day. Of course, don't forget to eat light food with less oil and salt.

For staple foods, you can choose foods rich in dietary fiber, such as millet, barley, buckwheat, sweet potatoes, etc., which can not only increase satiety but also promote gastrointestinal motility. Paired with vegetables, fruits, appropriate amounts of animal food and soy products, it will be a very healthy meal. Don’t forget to use steaming, boiling, stewing, stir-frying, etc. more often when cooking, and use less deep-frying, pan-frying, etc. [5]

References

[1] Associations of meal timing, number of eating occasions and night-time fasting duration with incidence of type 2 diabetes in the NutriNet-Santé cohort. International Journal of Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyad081

[2] Tang J, Dong JY, Eshak ES, et al. Supper Timing and Cardiovascular Mortality: The Japan Collaborative Cohort Study. Nutrients. 2021 Sep 27;13(10):3389.

[3] Garaulet M, Lopez-Minguez J, Dashti HS, et al. Interplay of Dinner Timing and MTNR1B Type 2 Diabetes Risk Variant on Glucose Tolerance and Insulin Secretion: A Randomized Crossover Trial. Diabetes Care. 2022 Mar 1;45(3):512-519. doi: 10.2337/dc21-1314. PMID: 35015083; PMCID: PMC8918262.

[4] 2023-05-15CCTV Life Circle "Eating this way for dinner increases the risk of cerebral hemorrhage by 44%! Many people have been affected!"

[5] 2023-08-14 Nutritionist Gu Zhongyi: "Eating at breakfast and dinner may prevent diabetes"

Planning and production

Source: Health Times

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director and Researcher of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association

Editor: Yinuo