2023-08-18 07:21:44
by Andrea Ghiselli
If dinner were sparing, if it represented about 25-30% of the daily caloric requirement, supported mainly by vegetable sources, milk and derivatives and fishery products, we could also have it late in the evening without repercussions on blood sugar
I have family risk factors for diabetes, and I’ve read that earlier dinner times can be an effective strategy for lowering blood sugar. What dietary measures could I implement to try to prevent the onset of the disease?
Answers Andrea Ghiselli, director of the first level Master in Food Science and Applied Dietetics at Unitelma Sapienza (Rome) and past president of the Italian Society of Food Sciences (VAI AL FORUM)
Undoubtedly our chronobiology is that of a diurnal animal, so we metabolize better in the presence of sunlight. Shift workers and night workers are in fact subject to a greater risk of metabolic diseases, obesity and diabetes. But be careful to correctly interpret what you read, because the articles are often very emphatic and the reader is not able to perceive their weight, i.e. how much it actually affects the risk of disease. The modifiable risk factors which determine the risk of diabetes are: sedentary lifestyle, cigarette smoking, quantity/quality of calories consumed (and I am not referring only to carbohydrates) and excess weight. Then there are the unchangeables such as age, familiarity, genetic predisposition which I am not talking about, precisely because they are unchangeable, but which contribute to the overall risk.
Excess weight and other risk factors
Excess weight, the result of a sedentary lifestyle and incorrect diet, is certainly the most important risk factor because it includes a series of risk factors: excessive consumption of saturated fats, excessive consumption of red and preserved meat, excessive consumption of free sugars and sugary drinks, low consumption of fibres, whole grains, legumes, fresh fruit and nuts, greens and vegetables and dairy products. Among animal products, in fact, dairy products are associated with lower risk. None of these factors alone can determine a major risk, but together they constitute the greatest risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. And all together they represent our current lifestyle.
25-30% of the daily caloric requirement
Of course, if we then consume our usual diet (abundant, rich in saturated fats, free sugars, red and preserved meats, etc.) also in abundance at night, we will aggravate the risk which, however, I repeat, is determined above all by the excess, not from the timetable. If dinner were sparing, if it represented about 25-30% of the daily caloric requirement, mainly supported by vegetable sources, milk and derivatives and fishery products, we could have dinner even late in the evening without repercussions on blood sugar. In other words: excess causes damage, if it is exceeded in the evening it is even worse.
August 18, 2023 (change August 18, 2023 | 07:20)
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