For Reduced Risk of Disease, Eat Dinner Earlier
A new study shows that early eats may contribute to beating cancer.
Image: iStock
Electric light bulbs, ventilated kitchens… When you think about it, it’s all rather unnatural that we humans stare at our Instagram feeds into the wee hours of the morning and host our dinner parties late at night.
Does it not, then, make sense that such behavior—like eating long after the sun goes down—could have adverse consequences on our health?
That’s what researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health set out to explore when they set up their study of breast and prostate cancer patients in Spain—a project that led to the discovery of a possible relationship between late-night meals and an increased likelihood of disease.
Using information from 1,826 cancer cases, the researchers conducted interviews concerning meal and sleep schedules.
They found that participants who ate dinner either before 9 p.m. or two hours before bed had a 20 percent lower risk of developing breast or prostate cancer when compared to both those who ate after 10 p.m. and those who ate less than two hours before bed.
The study’s lead author, Manolis Kogevinas, believes that the results “highlight the importance of assessing circadian rhythms in studies on diet and cancer.”
This study is not the first to be concerned with foods and disease, but it is the first to deal with mealtimes and disease, according to ScienceDaily. While it still needs to be confirmed independently, it does point to the possibility that you should be eating well before your head hits the pillow, a suggestion which can also potentially help fight weight gain.
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