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A Professor of Anatomy, Oladapo Ashiru, has warned against eating
after 9 pm, stressing that such a habit is not beneficial to the human
body and health.
In an interview with a Punch correspondent, Ashiru noted that when
people eat after 9 pm the food would not be able to digest before
sleeping which is dangerous for the body.
“The only condition when you could eat after 9pm is if you can
exercise patience to ensure the food digest. But, unfortunately, many
people who eat after 9 pm will not wait for the food to digest, they go
to bed immediately and this lead to many health problems,” Ashiru stated.
Also, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania found that eating late at night raises
glucose and insulin levels in the blood, both of which cause type 2
diabetes.
According to newtelegraph.co.uk, the researchers found evidence
that poor timing of meals can also affect cholesterol levels, which can
increase the risk of heart disease or heart attack.
The researchers in their study asked nine adults with a healthy
weight to eat three meals and two snacks between 8am and 7 pm for eight
weeks and then asked them to do the same but between noon and 11 pm for
another eight weeks. To control for sleep, they asked participants to
sleep between 11 pm to 9am for eight weeks.
They found that when participants ate later at night, not only did
their weight increase but so did their levels of insulin, glucose and
cholesterol.
They also found that during the first eight weeks of daytime
eating, participants produced a hormone, which stimulated the appetite
to help them feel fuller for longer.