ZOE’s chief scientist explains what happens to your body if you partake in the late night activity in a new episode of Diary Of A CEO
Dr Sarah Berry, chief scientist at ZOE and a professor at King’s College London, has revealed the truth about eating after 9pm in a recent episode of Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast. With over two decades of experience in nutritional research, Dr Berry is also the lead nutritional scientist on the PREDICT programme, the world’s largest in-depth nutritional research initiative.
ZOE, a personalised nutrition company, was founded by health experts Tim Spector, Jonathan Wolf, and George Hadjigeorgiou. During her chat with Steven Bartlett, Dr Berry discussed the impact of late-night eating on our bodies.
She warned that it can lead to several harmful health outcomes, such as increased obesity, particularly belly fat, higher inflammation levels, and worsened blood lipid cholesterol profiles. This applies even if the late-night snacks are considered “healthy”.
The timing of our meals, known as “chrono nutrition”, plays a significant role in how our bodies metabolise food, due to our internal body clock. But, a large number of people regularly snack after 9pm, reports Surrey Live.
Steven Bartlett highlighted some concerning statistics, stating: “85% of British people report snacking compared to 10% in France.” He explained: “In the UK we have 2.5 to three snacks per day, which translates to six or seven eating events a day. This has massive impacts on our glucose spikes and drops throughout the day, causing metabolic chaos.”
Dr Berry highlighted that every cell in our body has an internal clock influenced by our eating patterns, which can affect our metabolism’s daily function. “In published research from very tightly controlled clinical trials, we found that if you snack late at night, that was associated with unfavourable health outcomes.
“So worse adipose – fat around your belly for example. Higher levels of inflammation, worse levels of blood lipid, so you know cholesterol. And we found that this was even if you were snacking on healthy snacks.” Adipose belly fat is the fat that accumulates in the abdominal area and can be either visceral, deep inside the abdomen, or subcutaneous, just under the skin.
She added: “This isn’t especially surprising because there’s this whole new area in nutrition called chrono nutrition, which is all about the timing of eating and we now are really starting to understand that every cell has a clock and that clock is shaped by when we eat, as well as the light day cycle.
“If we’re eating out of sync with those clocks those millions and trillions of clocks in our body, we know that we metabolise it slightly differently and it may have a different impact on our health and that’s what our research showed as well. So eating after 9pm isn’t great for your health.”
Eating late at night, particularly post-9pm, can disrupt the body’s internal clocks, leading to increased hunger, weight gain, digestive issues, and poorer sleep quality. The body is not best equipped to handle food shortly before sleep, which may influence hormone balance and metabolic rates.
The study mentioned in the podcast can be found in the National Library of Medicine. Its data shows a clear variance in blood glucose and lipid levels among participants who snacked after 9pm (32%) versus those who refrained from evening snacking (68%).
Late-night eating can aggravate acid reflux and affect blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, and weight management. Instead, health professionals recommend allowing some time between the last meal and bedtime to support better digestion.
Indulging in your most substantial meal early on and diminishing portion sizes as the day progresses could be beneficial while reaching for a modest, protein-rich snack before sleep can be a savvy choice if you’re peckish. It’s important to heed when your body is truly hungry, avoiding excessive food intake.
Victoria Taylor, Senior Dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, has advised, “Trying to stick to a regular meal pattern, and eating earlier in the day rather than late at night, is unlikely to be harmful and could help our health.”
