Giving up the first meal is worse than not eating in the evening, as regards glucose tolerance and the consequences on weight and diabetes risk
Snacks and coffee (perhaps with brioche) for shift workers, from the carabinieri, to the nurses, to the 24h switchboard operators who have to work every night, they are deleterious for the line and beyond.
What hurts
This is indicated by a study by researchers from the Universities of Boston and Portland (United States) and Murcia (Spain) directed by Sarah Chellappa published in the journal Science Advances. Meal times and sleep / wake cycle they are in fact in equilibrium with each other, but if they are misaligned, the metabolism receives confounding messages from the two main clocks that govern it, the sleep cycle and that of meals, with consequent dysmetabolism where glycemic dysregulation is the first sign of this phase shift. The researchers examined the many variables that come into play and found that there are no significant effects on the release of insulin or cortisol, the hormones that regulate the two opposite plates of the glycemic balance. The same is true for core body temperature, resting energy expenditure or respiratory quotient, all of which are related to the circadian rhythm of the sleep / wake cycle. On the other hand, thefluctuation in blood sugarresulting in an increased risk of prediabetes and glucose intolerance, which are the gateway to diabetes.
The rhythms to follow
This study is another piece in the puzzle ofeating time which increasingly strengthens the hypothesis that postpone artificially our biological clock involves many metabolic problems – comments Andrea Ghiselli, president of the Italian Society of Food Sciences – We are diurnal animals and moving the meal times forward entails problems of this type of lag. Studying 12 men and 7 women of normal weight for age (about thirty years old) for two weeks in a simulated night shift regime (32 hours of wakefulness in dim light) where 10 ate caloric snacks and 9 abstained from food, the Hispanic-American researchers have seen that those who ate went through a desynchronization of 28 hours instead of 24 with a displacement of the glycemia, while those who ate only during the day maintained normal glycemic rhythms because the meal clock prevails on that of the sleep / wake cycle, so much so that even a surplus of sleep before the test was not effective.
Better to skip dinner
Unlike this, other studies, also Italian – concludes Ghiselli – indicate that night work raises cortisol levels and induces insulin resistance, but there is no doubt that taking most of the calories in the first part of the day, obviously in the right balance of quality. / quantity, healthier behavior. It would therefore be better to skip dinner than breakfast, but due to the way society is organized, we are instead inclined to skip or lighten breakfast (many believe that having a coffee is breakfast) and load up on dinner because, willy-nilly, the only meal that is eaten in the family. The researchers have in fact verified whether a diet only during the day could avoid problems and have seen that there is a difference between meals: skipping breakfast is much worse than skipping dinner, especially as regards glucose tolerance, an effect that, the authors say, is the direct consequence of misalignment with the central circadian clock of the fasting / eating cycle rather than the sleep / wake cycle. So, if you are on duty, never skip it.
April 12, 2022 (change April 14, 2022 | 13:50)
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