Now, it should go without saying, there’s no ‘wrong’ time of day to eat – depending on your schedule, meal times will vary.
But snacking on foods low in nutritional goodness, we all know, isn’t often the healthiest choice.
Studies show 75% of the snacks consumed in the UK are heavily processed, which is the worst kind of snack.
As well as the kind of snack eaten, when you eat it matters too.
Dr Sarah Berry recently gave insight into this on ZOE, a nutrition science podcast.
She said: ‘Research really clearly shows that if you are snacking late, so after 6pm or very late after 9pm, it has really unfavourable impacts on your health and there are lots of other randomised control trials to support that.’
Currently around 35% of people eat snacks late, closer to our bedtime, according to Dr Sarah. It’s a bad habit that’s become normalised in British culture.
On the podcast, they gave the example of people watching TV and snacking.
‘If you watch Gogglebox, everyone’s watching TV,’ host Tim Spector said.
‘And on their sofa, they’ve got plates of sandwiches and cakes, with their mugs of tea and coffee. And in many parts of the UK, this is the tradition.
‘You can’t really sort of watch TV unless you’ve got some snacks there.’
So if the habit is ingrained, the best next step is to pick healthier snacks.
Dr Sarah goes for dark chocolate herself.
Snacking at night could be a sign of ‘night eating syndrome’, which can cause insomnia and weight gain, plus negatively impact mental health.
Other research points to weight gain being a repercussion too, as a study in rats found blood fats spiked when eating close to bedtime.
And according to a 2013 study, overweight people who eat early in the day lost approximately 12% of their body weight, while late eaters lost only 8%, even though they all followed the same diet and exercise regime.
Healthier snack options
- Dark chocolate
- Nuts
- Greek yoghurt
- Fruit
- Vegetables with a dip
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