Is it harmful to eat at night - new research by scientists. Is it harmful to eat at night: a harmless habit or a complete disease

Everyone knows today that most people, and especially women, try not to eat after 6 pm. However, whether this event is a mere legend, or whether it really allows you to keep yourself in good shape, we will try to figure it out today, and we will also give an answer to the question of why it is harmful to eat at night.

True or myth, what is harmful to eat at night?

To begin with, it is worthwhile to figure out whether the statement that it is not recommended to eat food at night is true, and that this can lead to undesirable consequences. Of course, this statement is true, and there is no need to even doubt it, everything is already obvious. But here's why it's bad to eat at night, we'll deal with the available arguments below.

There are several arguments at once in favor of the fact that eating before bed is not the best solution. First of all, it is important to understand that such non-compliance with the daily regimen can lead, and will lead, you can be sure, to the appearance of excess weight.

Such a late dinner leads to the fact that the formation of muscle tissue slows down, namely, the burning of calories also depends on this process, which occurs even at night, when a person is in a state of sleep. In addition to this, nightly meals lead to a greater load on the nervous system, which is difficult to recover overnight, and this leads to stress and further overeating in the daytime. In addition, the metabolism also decreases.

There is another unpleasant factor that affects the rate of human aging. The fact is that in the human body there is such a growth hormone as somatotropin. He is responsible for the renewal of body tissues, for the recovery and regenerative processes in the body of each person.

At night, when a person is sleeping, this growth hormone accelerates its work up to 10 times, and, accordingly, regenerative procedures are carried out much faster. However, such “acceleration” occurs only if the regime is observed. If a person systematically eats up at night, then the increase in the rate of regeneration will be only double or triple.

It is noteworthy that the answer to the question why it is harmful to eat at night for men and women will be the same, because we are all people, and the problems caused by eating at night affect both sexes. Therefore, we recommend that you give up this bad habit and devote more time to the correct daily routine, as well as systematic sports.

Outside the window is darkness. Pale cold light falls on the face. Eyes full of hunger and guilt. There is no more strength to hold back and suppress desire in yourself. This is not the beginning of another vampire saga, but only a description of the familiar habit of eating at night. Almost everyone knows about the dangers, but few people imagine the true answer why eating at night is harmful.

Night gluttony causes severe harm to the body, knocking down the usual mode of operation. The "patrimony" of addiction begins with circles under the eyes and ends with premature aging. Let's see why eating at night is bad.

Why is it harmful to eat at night: reasons

Sleep problems

Often the cause of lack of sleep and a heavy morning is a full stomach, and not at all a load at work, household chores. The accumulation of fatigue, an aversion to breakfast, and the feeling that you worked at the mine at night speak of unhealthy and restless sleep, signaling why eating at night is unhealthy. The gastrointestinal tract in working condition prevents the production of the hormone melatonin, which is responsible for regulating circadian rhythms and healthy sleep. A clear head plus a good mood will be the answer to the question of why eating before bed is harmful.

Improper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract

Let's say you have to deliver meat to a dumpling shop. It is irrational to send material for processing when the factory has already closed and the workers have gone home. But this is what we do with the "internal system of production." During sleep, not only the brain, but also the internal organs are in rest mode. The food eaten before going to bed lies in the duodenum as a dead weight with a sign "why eating at night is harmful."

Meat left near an empty factory will spoil by morning and cease to be usable. Similar processes of fermentation and decay are triggered in the body, disrupting the balance of microflora. Why is it bad to eat at night? Processing of the consequences of night gluttony will begin in the morning, and "stale" fuel filled with toxins will enter the bloodstream, causing allergic processes. Being an egoist for a resting organism is a state that states why it is harmful to eat before going to bed.

Complication of internal organs

You are pregnant. It's hard to walk, it's painful to sleep. All organs are crumpled, the musculoskeletal system is tired, the forces are over. A similar shake-up is arranged every night after a heavy dinner. Why is it bad to eat at night? In the body, the oxygen supply to the internal organs is disrupted, leading to an imbalance.

The diaphragm raised by the stomach “supports” the cardiac aorta, blood circulation in the abdominal region and lower extremities weakens. The brain is deprived of useful substances and oxygen, and the stomach with undigested cargo becomes a priority. Arranging such stress for your body is unjustified, which is why eating at night is harmful.

Obesity

It's great to collect energy for the future, work like a battery, but this is a "perishable" product. All unused fast carbohydrates, the most active fuel suppliers, are carefully collected by the body and processed into fats. Painfully familiar sides, stomach and buttocks cherish accumulations until the moment of energy hunger. Why is it bad to eat at night?

First, high-carb foods eaten before bed and not burned during physical activity will be sent to the fat store. There are extra pounds spoiling the mood at the morning weigh-in, which is why it is harmful to eat at night.

Secondly, overnight fasting contributes to the burning of "strategic fuel". Forced to work on its own battery, the body uses the reserve for a rainy day. Good news for those trying to lose weight. Healthy sleep with parallel disposal of excess fat is a normal everyday life for the body, signaling why it is harmful to eat before bedtime.

Why you can’t eat before bed: consequences

Responsibility and discipline. Not all people have these qualities, and our internal organs are the most flawless workers in the world. This is one of the reasons why eating at night is unhealthy.

When a signal is received that the duodenum is full, the gallbladder and pancreas trigger a response. The first produces juice to digest food, the second releases enzymes to break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Why is it bad to eat at night? The gastrointestinal tract is in rest mode, so the excreted substances are forced to return back. Condensed bile turns into stones, and enzymes begin to digest pancreatic tissue, causing pancreatitis.

Why is it bad to eat at night? Unprocessed sugar in the blood contributes to a sharp increase in insulin, which causes diabetes. Excess glucose also triggers the destruction of collagen, which is responsible for the elasticity and strength of blood vessels.

At a certain moment, the body, obeying the habitual scheme, begins to work against itself and produce destructive processes with rare responsibility and discipline, reminding why it is harmful to eat at night.

Premature aging

Night raids on the refrigerator at the cost of rapid old age? This is not a hypothesis, but a scientifically substantiated fact. Age-related changes are triggered in the body through destabilization of the hormonal background: sex hormones and appetite hormones go off scale, and growth hormones are suppressed by fats. During the day, the renewal process is leveled by stress and food intake, and at night the most favorable time for rejuvenation comes.

Why is it bad to eat at night? Nighttime refrigerator worship leads to an increase in blood sugar and the production of insulin, which prevents the release of growth hormones. Cell renewal and muscle tissue growth come to naught.

Don't become a decrepit, sleepy, fat, sick vampire wandering around a dark apartment looking for food, just stick to the nightly interval between meals (12 hours). The body will do the rest of the work on its own with a programmed program, why it is harmful to eat before going to bed. However, these measures are not recommended for children and for diseases of the stomach and duodenum.

The myth that you can’t eat at night has a clear origin: at night we cannot control our body, and as soon as we fall asleep with a gastrointestinal tract full from the third dinner, how its contents (without your personal control!) begin to harm you, impudently deposited in the form of fat or lies and deteriorates right inside us, because at night the intestines do not work, it is dark.

"12 duodenal" gut and SEO pests

The Internet is filled with texts forbidding people to eat at night. In them you will not find references to scientific research, but there is where the authors' fantasies unfold.

Here is an example of a typical wrecking text (from the site samosoverhenstvovanie.ru. The spelling and transcription of the site address are preserved): “as I said, food at night is simply not normally digested, since the duodenum during sleep is also in a sleepy, sluggish state. But the stomach then works, filling it with food, as a result of which it is greatly stretched, and gastric juice hardly penetrates into this mass, which lies in the 12th duodenum until the morning. And even worse, the bile from the gallbladder often cannot break through this congestion at all, and it remains to thicken in the gallbladder until the morning, subsequently forming stones and inflammation, as a result of which operations are naturally required to remove them.

And here is a little blizzard from the site your-diet.ru: “ If you eat at night and go to bed, the muscles cannot process sugar and glucose enters the liver, where, under the influence of enzymes, it turns into fat.«.

Yes, in general, you can see for yourself in any site that appears after a query in the search engine "Why not eat at night."

Do I need to add that there is not a single reference to research. It is curious how the fantasy of such SEO writers, whose goal is to promote search links inside the text, beats the key to the heads of poor readers. But enough about humor, let's turn to experts and science.

Why can you eat at night. Scientific approach

Let's turn to science. Dmitry Pikul will help us with this (LJ user znatok-ne , we have already published its scientific justification).

The general message from both reviews of scientific studies is: yes, of course, during sleep, there is a decrease in salivation, swallowing frequency, pressure of the upper esophageal sphincter decreases, and the number of primary contractions of the esophagus, but all this is not in any way pathological, so that we can say that the gastrointestinal tract is not able to cope normally at night with food entering the stomach on the eve of sleep .

With regard to gastric emptying, this characteristic depends more on individual circadian rhythms, and not on the very fact of the presence or absence of sleep as such. There is evidence that gastric emptying increases during REM sleep and slows during deep sleep, and there is evidence that gastric emptying slows during both phases of sleep. Experiments with solid food have shown that at night the emptying of the stomach occurs faster than in the morning.

On average, the highest secretion of gastric juice is observed between 22 o'clock and 2 o'clock in the morning, regardless of whether a person is sleeping or not. There is currently no evidence to support that sleep has an effect on gastric acid secretion. . And in this process, the normal secretion of the hormone melatonin is of considerable importance, because. melatonin inhibits the release of gastric acid, promotes the normalization of gastric blood flow, improves regeneration and affects the development of gastric mucosal tissue, villus height, overall mucosal thickness and cell division.

Peristalsis of the small intestine is even higher at night than during the day. And intestinal peristalsis itself can have an impact on sleep, i.e. when after eating (it doesn’t matter in the evening or in the afternoon) drowsiness appears, this, among other things, can occur due to signals sent by the central nervous system when the intestine is stretched, and accompanied by the secretion of the hormone cholecystokinin.

No relationship was found between food intake, sleep and negative changes in the secretion of gastrin, neurotensin, YY peptide, pancreatic hormones, polypeptide, amylase and protease. Those. this process does not depend on the phases of sleep, nor on sleep as such, in principle, but is tied to food intake and its digestion / assimilation .

And there is such a thing as adaptation of the body to systematically repeated conditions, i.e. if we are used to eating at night, then the body adapts to such a meal and starts the necessary chains of reactions so that the process goes as it should.

And anticipating the desire of someone to accuse me of propaganda to get drunk at night, I’ll say right away that everything is as usual here, I’m considering the situation reasonable dietary control over the target calorie content of their balanced diet. But even if we do not take this important factor into account, from a purely physiological point of view, The gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and digestive organs work as they should in the framework necessary to perform their functions, both during wakefulness and during sleep / night .

1. Vaughn BV, Rotolo S, Roth HL. Circadian rhythm and influence sleeps on digestive physiology and disorders. ChronoPhysiology and Therapy, Volume 4, Published 2 September 2014 Volume 2014:4 Pages 67-77. DOI. dx.doi.org/10.2147/CPT.S44806.

2. Dantas RO1, Aben-Athar CG. . Arq Gastroenterol. 2002 Jan-Mar;39(1):55-9.

It is well known that eating before bed threatens to gain excess weight, indigestion. What other consequences await lovers of late dinner? Why is it bad to eat at night.

Because very get old fast. Loose skin, deep wrinkles - this is what awaits those who do not want or cannot go to bed hungry.

This is especially important for women who devote a lot of time to their appearance.

Harm of food at night

Eating at night reduces the production of the growth hormone or somatropin. It is called "growth hormone". It is produced in the maximum amount at night immediately after falling asleep. It is somatropin that renews the cells of the body. If we slept at night, the cells were renewed. And, if you didn’t sleep, then in the morning all the layers of the skin remained in place, there was no renewal of the epidermis. The lack of this hormone leads to an increase in fat mass.

Read more about other beneficial properties of somatropin in a separate article here.

The stomach, instead of resting, is forced to process food for a long time. Some of the food is dead weight. Hydrochloric acid is produced throughout the night. Part of it is thrown into the esophagus, causing burns of the mucosa. Ulcers and erosion develop. There is excess weight.

In the body of a person snacking before bedtime, the production of a completely different hormone insulin increases..
Insulin is an adversary, an antagonist of somatropin. Somatropin is blocked while another hormone takes over in the body.

A person who goes to bed hungry at 24 hours begins a sharp increase in somatotropin. An hour or two after falling asleep, the amount of the hormone increases 10 times or more. A sharp increase continues until three or four in the morning. Then the same sharp decline. And by 7 o'clock in the morning, somatropin returns to the usual norm.

Breaking the habit of eating before bed is very difficult. There is no strong motivation. Many believe that they will be able to control weight gain. While there is no pain about malfunctions in the body, it is difficult to guess. But, imagine yourself with loose skin, with deep wrinkles. I do not like?

A few rules for youth and health

1. Sleep in total darkness. Blackout curtains, blindfolds, blinds will come in handy. Only in complete darkness is produced another hormone of youth - melatonin. If you go to the toilet at night and turn on the light for a few seconds, the production of melatonin stops completely.
2. You need to go to bed no later than 23:00 so that by 24 hours sleep is deep and strong. The peak production of somatotropin by the body occurs at 24-4 in the morning, melatonin at 2 in the morning. Be sure to sleep until 3-4 hours.
3. Last Eating should be 3-4 hours before bedtime.
4. It is allowed to drink a glass of kefir or milk 2 hours before bedtime. These are fast-digesting foods and insulin levels will soon return to normal.
5. Have breakfast.
6. Eat a little, but often.

No pills and injections can replace the hormones of youth produced by the body itself. Eating at night enhances the aging process of the skin and internal organs.

Look at our veterans. Malnutrition and hunger at a young age stimulate the maximum production of “youth hormones”. That is why many of them were able to live to an advanced age. God bless them! Now you know and keep youth and beauty for years to come.

Food is an integral part of the life of every person, because it is necessary to maintain the functioning of all organs and systems, activity and energy. There are a lot of recommendations about proper nutrition, a healthy diet and unhealthy foods. But all experts agree that it is impossible to eat at night - there are scientific explanations for this.

Read in this article

The Scientific Reason Why You Shouldn't Eat at Night

Many are sure that a couple of buns, one candy or coffee with hard cheese at night will not do much harm. And the calories gained can be successfully “expelled” from the body by morning exercises, jogging. In fact, scientists warn that eating before bed leads not only to a set of kilograms, but also to other health disorders - instability of blood pressure, insomnia, premature aging, impaired psycho-emotional background.

What does sweetness lead to?

If something sweet was consumed at night, then the following happens in the body:

sugar is not digested at all;
glucose directly enters the liver, specific enzymes begin to act on it, as a result, sugar turns into fat;
the formed fat "colonies" begin to move throughout the body and settle in its various parts.

Sweet at night leads to the development of diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis. Doctors say that such diseases do not appear immediately, the body is able to solve the problem of the rapid formation of body fat for a long time. But regular violations of the diet, eating sweets, cookies in the evening with a cup of tea or coffee for years increase the risk of developing these pathologies.

A lot of food - the enemy is not only the waist

What happens when food enters the stomach? The digestive system begins to work actively: gastric juice is actively produced, lumps of food particles enter the duodenum, where bile immediately penetrates, this entire “cocktail” is sent to the intestines. But if a person ate and went to bed, then the whole process of digestion of food is disturbed:

The result will be especially pronounced in the morning - an unpleasant belching, heaviness in the stomach, discomfort in the right hypochondrium. And thickened bile provokes the formation of stones in the gallbladder and the development of inflammation of this organ.

Food at night - diseased vessels

Another reason to refuse to eat at night is the high likelihood of developing hypertension, atherosclerosis, and increased fragility of the walls of blood vessels. And this happens for a simple reason: a high amount of glucose in the blood has a detrimental effect on collagen, a protein that makes the walls of blood vessels strong and elastic.

Health problems will not arise immediately, but after a few months of daily nightly meals, atherosclerotic plaques begin to form in the vessels, and blood pressure often falls, then rises. Years of night meals form a complete set of vascular diseases in a person - from hypertension to varicose veins and atherosclerosis.

Late dinners - psycho-emotional problems

Everything is simple here: a full stomach and a malfunctioning digestive system provoke prolonged falling asleep, restless sleep. And this is a direct path to the lack of a sense of proper rest, chronic fatigue - mood swings, unmotivated irritation, headaches, aggression and loss of concentration are guaranteed.

Violation of the psycho-emotional background can be caused even by seemingly light night snacks. Many people think that either a fresh cucumber, a cup of coffee with milk and sugar, or a piece of hard one will not do any harm. In fact, even a cup of tea is food, so by the motto "no food at night" doctors mean exactly what they say.

About why it is harmful to eat at night, see this video:

What foods can be eaten at night

But scientists and doctors are not too categorical in their prohibitions on eating at night. If a person goes to bed with a "rumbling" stomach and an acute feeling of hunger, then this will not bring health either, will not add strength. You should not go to extremes, you just need to know what foods you can eat before bed at night, but only in small quantities.

Soup. Surprisingly, 100-150 ml of warm chicken broth with herbs will calm the nervous system and set you up for a good night's rest. Just do not need to eat a plate of beans or homemade, especially borscht - this is simply the worst thing you can think of for a night meal.
Milk. This is a familiar means of calming down before going to bed since childhood - a glass of warm milk with a teaspoon. Some doctors believe that it gives a placebo effect - if a person believes in the effectiveness of this method, then falling asleep will quickly pass, and he will be able to rest. In any case, amino acids from milk and a small amount of glucose from honey activate the production of serotonin, the calming hormone.
Almond. Literally a few pieces of nuts drown out the feeling of hunger, stabilize cholesterol levels and nourish the body with magnesium.
. Most often, hunger masks ordinary thirst, but you don’t need to drink several glasses of water or black tea at night, 100 ml of ginger will be more useful. This root will strengthen the immune system, satisfy false hunger and calm the nervous system.

Eating at night is very harmful - this is a scientifically proven fact. But doctors say that you need to look for a “golden mean” in everything, and you should not abruptly abandon the usual “night burners” - the body will rebel and provoke a psycho-emotional disorder, exacerbation of chronic diseases, and insomnia.

It is better to eat something from the permitted list in the minimum amount and wake up in the morning rested, alert and with high efficiency.

Useful video

For information on what foods you can eat at night, see this video: