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What to eat, when you MUST eat late at night

Eating at night is PROBLEMATIC, from a body chemistry perspective.

Both epidemiological studies and experimental studies, show, your body’s ability to “handle” food, diminishes as the day progresses.

But, eating at night, is NORMAL.

In fact, it has become THE NEW NORMAL.  Studies suggest that most people, eat the majority of their calories, in the latter third of their day.

So what should you do ?

Well the dogmatic answer is simple – DON’T DO IT !

Set an eating cut off time, that ensure you have a night fast, of at least 13 hours and STICK TO IT.

Unfortunately, this is not always practical. Lifestyles and life circumstances often conspire, to make eating late at night, an inevitability.

So in this circumstance, what should you do ?

Can you improve your body chemistry, by changing what you eat, late at night ?

This is what a group of  Australian researchers, recently asked – to get an answer, they invited 10 healthy, normal weight,  Australians round for “dinner”, on 4 separate occasions.

• Twice in the morning (8 am)
• Twice in the evening (8 pm)

They served pasta with tomato based sauce and a milkshake, on all four occasions.

Same look, different macros

Now to all intents and purposes, all the meals “looked” the same………… with the same calorie count, but,  behind the scenes, they manipulated the macronutrient composition, so that, each person, got

• a standard meal (15 % protein, 34 % fat and 46 % carb)   and
• a high protein meal (41 % protein, 28 % fat and 29 % carb)

at both time points.

Then they watched what happened….

NOTE :  To ensure, they were comparing apples with apples, the team, controlled the participants eating habits, in the hours, before the  test.  This was achieved, by giving everyone a pre-test dinner, which needed to be consumed 10 hours before the test and then NOTHING !

Eating is a challenge

Sending in food, whatever, the composition, requires fancy foot work…………….

But, the response is BETTER, earlier in the day.

Glucose incremental area under the curve after consumption of a standard test meal and high protein meal, at different time points. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism.

And if you, drop the carb level and up the protein level, it’s also decidedly, easier.

It’s NOT rocket science….

Less carbs in, mean less carbs to process.

To put a number of this……………. in this study, the glucose level was decreased by 71.4 %.

Now this happened in ordinary non-diabetic individuals, who on paper at least, have not reason to worry about, putting sugar away.

So what does this mean…..

In the not so healthy

If you’re metabolically challenged, you struggle to put, sugar away at the best of times…………

Late at NIGHT, is NEVER going to be A GOOD TIME.

So, sending less sugar in, is a no brainer.

But, sugar is NOT your  only, worry…………insulin is also a trouble maker.

An insulin effect ?

Remember one of the reasons, healthy people have NO PROBLEM, putting away sugar, is because their insulin molecules, are on the ball.

They arrive ON TIME.

And, get the JOB DONE.

So, could the improved, sugar levels, have come, because there was more insulin, sent to deal with the “crisis” ?

NOTE :  Both glucose and amino acids,  trigger the beta cells to pump out insulin.

Hyperinsulinemia THE ENEMY

When you’re metabolically challenged, insulin is high, morning, noon and NIGHT.  That night time high, is NOT SUPPOSED to happen and is implicated, in a host of  health problems.  Click here, to learn, why hyperinsulinemia, is an issue.

So a spike, just before bed, will leave you, running higher overnight.

The good ness….

Insulin spike softened

A late night, high protein dinner, did NOT cause an insulin spike.   In fact, the insulin response to the high protein meal, was marginally lower – the difference, was not big enough, to be considered statically significant.

Insulin incremental area under the curve after consumption of a standard test meal and high protein test meal at different time points. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism.

But tapering this off, of the insulin spike, even just a little, is likely to improve overall BODY CHEMISTRY.

So the take home message………….

Skip late night  feeds  as far as possible. 

The rest of the time,  CANDY FLOSS  i.e.

• Cut the carbs
• Add, protein, fat & fibre.

Download the free “Willpower Report” to discover the other weapons, in the CANDY FLOSS system.

PS.  If you’re going to deviate from this suggestion,  do it early in the day, i.e.  have dessert for breakfast.

Further reading

Want to discover more ways to create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY ?