What a new study has revealed about meal times and their link to disease. What doctors from EKPA say.
If you want to protect yourself from type 2 diabetes, pay attention to when you eat breakfast. A new study shows that the slower you consume, the lower your risk of developing the disease.
Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and other academic centers in the United States, the timing of the rest of the day’s meals does not seem to be so important.
New findings Published in the medical journal Diabetes Care. The study included 8,868 volunteers who did not have diabetes at the beginning of the study from 2008 to 2011.
The average age of the participants was 39. Almost 51% were women. The researchers recorded their diet on two different days, noting, among other things, the times they ate breakfast and other meals. Food consumption is divided into five categories as follows:
- Early morning (6:00 a.m. to 8:59 a.m.)
- Late morning (9:00 a.m. to 11:59 a.m.)
- Afternoon to Evening (12:00 PM to 5:59 PM)
- Evening (18:00-23:59)
- Night (00:00 to 5:59)
Scientists re-examined their volunteers after about 6 years (2014-2017). During this period, 1262 of them were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
findings
The researchers found that volunteers who ate breakfast late had a lower risk of developing diabetes.
In fact, each 100-calorie (kcal) increase in energy intake and 10-unit increase in late-morning glycemic load was associated with a 6% and 7% reduction in risk, respectively. This was true regardless of food quality, quantity, or other factors.
For every 100 calories shifted from other times of the day to late morning, the risk of developing diabetes also decreased by 5%.
Similarly, moving 10 energy-adjusted glycemic load units from early morning, afternoon, or evening to late morning was associated with a 7–9% risk reduction.
No relevant association was observed between energy intake and glycemic load during the other 24 h, and the risk of diabetes.
Professors from Alexandra Hospital’s EKPA Therapeutics Clinic say the data “strengthen existing evidence in the international literature that eating early in the day mainly helps prevent type 2 diabetes”. Stavroula Pashu (Docent of Endocrinology Department) and Theodora Psaltopoulou (pathologist, professor of the department of therapeutic-epidemiology-prophylactic medicine).
Lifestyle change
Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes threaten more and more people in developed countries. For this reason, the European Union finances interventions in the population with the aim of improving health.
One of them is a joint campaign called Diabetes Care, which focuses on lifestyle changes, especially diet, exercise, sleep and daily stress management.
The campaign, which started in February 2023, lasts for 36 months and a total of 12 countries participate. In Greece, the competent authority is the 1st Health Region of Attica (1st Health Region) in collaboration with the EKPA Therapeutic Clinic at the Alexandra Hospital.