Are night snacks really dangerous for the waistline? New research shows that when we eat can be just as important as what we put in our mouths.
If you eat in the evening while surfing the Internet or watching a movie, you will probably gain weight more easily, scientists warn.
The warning comes after research on mice. One group of mice was only allowed to eat during an eight-hour period, while the other group was allowed to eat all day and night. Although the mice in these two groups ate about the same number of calories, those who ate during the day did not become fat.
The results indicate that those who also ate in the evening, i.e. when they wanted to, they didn't hold the line so well. Mice from this group gained weight because the body clock was disturbed, according to American scientists, and they believe that the same principle can be applied to humans as well, reports net.hr.
Dr. Satčadananda Panda, head of the study, explains that at certain times of the day the udder, viscera and muscles are most effective, while at other times they 'sleep'. 'Each organ has a biological clock. Those metabolic cycles are key to weight gain. If mice and humans eat both during the day and at night, they can disrupt normal metabolic cycles,' he added.
Namely, at the end of the research, mice that ate all day and night gained 70 percent more fat deposits than those that ate only during the day. It should be kept in mind that both groups had approximately the same amount of food at their disposal.
In the journal Cell Metabolism, Dr. Panda's research team from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California suggests that limiting meal times may help reduce obesity.
Tam Fry, from the UK's National Obesity Forum, says: 'There is a way of eating that we need to nurture from childhood - three well-spaced meals a day. Anything on the contrary disturbs the body and creates problems with the hormones that control appetite.'
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