Is skipping dinner healthier? There is a fatal downside!

There is an old Chinese saying: Don't eat after noon. It roughly means that after the sun reaches noon, until the next day's dawn, you are not allowed to eat during this period, which is better for health.

A recent study found that "morning eating" (eating between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m.) can improve fasting blood sugar, reduce body weight and body fat, increase intestinal microbial diversity, and is more effective in improving insulin sensitivity and controlling blood sugar.

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Many media outlets have reported that "skipping dinner is healthier" and "there is new evidence for not eating after noon." What is this research all about? Is skipping dinner really healthier? Should we still eat dinner? Let's talk about eating dinner today.

I'm Busy, Quick Reading Edition

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For studies that say skipping dinner is healthier, the energy intake of the subjects was different, and the sample size was small and could not represent the wider population.

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If you skip dinner, you will feel hungry, and if you don’t eat for a long time, you will suffer from malnutrition.

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If you eat a lot before dinner or want to control your weight, you can skip dinner.

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You should eat dinner regularly, and try to keep the food light and varied, and avoid overeating.

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1

What is dietary restriction?

The so-called time restricted feeding (TRF) actually means eating within a specific time period every day (usually 8 hours), with no calorie restrictions during the eating period and no eating at other times.

In the study mentioned in the news, the researchers divided 90 healthy volunteers who voluntarily participated in the study into a morning eating group (eTRE, that is, skipping dinner), a midday eating group (mTRE, that is, skipping breakfast), and a control group. Finally, 82 volunteers completed the 5-week trial.

The results showed that eating in the morning was more effective than eating at noon in improving insulin sensitivity; eating in the morning improved fasting blood sugar, reduced weight and obesity, improved inflammation, and increased gut microbial diversity [1]. Therefore, the researchers speculated that skipping dinner may be more beneficial to metabolic health.

In fact, similar studies have always been conducted [2], so is it really healthier to skip dinner?

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2

Is skipping dinner really healthier?

This study is very popular, and many media have interpreted it as "not eating after noon is healthier", "skipping dinner can help lose weight", "skipping dinner is good for metabolic health"...

In fact, it would be too one-sided to simply interpret this research result as "skipping dinner is healthier."

In fact, the energy content of the food eaten by each group of subjects in this experiment was different.

Although the experiment was divided into three groups - the no-eating group, the no-breakfast group, and the control group, the average daily calorie reduction during the experiment was 240, 159, and 64 kcal, respectively. In other words, the people in the no-eating group also reduced their energy even more. So, it is unknown whether the "weight loss" and "better health indicators" in the final experimental results are the result of "reducing food intake" or "changing eating time."

Because the weight loss estimated based on the calorie difference during the five-week trial is similar to the actual results.

Also, although this study was a randomized trial, there were many confounding factors.

For example, most of the people who applied to participate in the trial were women, who may have been interested in dietary restrictions or wanted to improve their health by changing their diet; and the number of participants in this trial was relatively small, and they may not be representative of the wider population.

So don’t really think that skipping dinner will be healthier just because of this research result.

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3

What are the dangers of skipping dinner?

In fact, if you really skip dinner, it will also harm your body. The most direct and obvious one is hunger, which will lead to malnutrition. This is very uncomfortable and deadly.

After all, the energy and nutrition our bodies need every day are similar. If we skip a certain meal and don’t eat more at other times, it will definitely not be enough and will slowly be consumed.

If you simply skip dinner and keep your other lifestyle habits the same, you will have malnutrition problems in the long run. For example, you may feel listless, weak, depressed, and have a dull complexion. These are all signs of malnutrition. (You are also hungry.)

For some people with special diseases, such as patients with gastrointestinal ulcers, or people working in special periods of time (such as working in three shifts or night shifts), skipping dinner will have a greater impact on them.

Therefore, from a health perspective, you should try to arrange your three meals a day regularly, and dinner should not be skipped.

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4

Who can skip dinner?

(1) People who eat a lot before dinner

If you ate a lot of meat and fish at lunch with friends, or ate a lot more than usual at a buffet to make up for the cost, or had a lot of snacks such as desserts, fruits, chips, biscuits, etc. in the afternoon... and didn't exercise at night, but just stayed at home watching TV and preparing for bed, then you don't need to think about dinner today.

(2) People who want to control their weight

If you are overweight, even reaching the "obese" line (BMI＞28), you need to control your diet appropriately and limit your energy intake. You can occasionally skip one or two dinners in the early stages of weight control.

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5

How to have a healthy dinner?

(1) Eat dinner regularly.

It is best to have a 3-hour interval between dinner and bedtime, which is more conducive to food digestion and does not affect sleep. If time permits, it is best to finish eating between 6 and 7 o'clock. Don't eat too late, otherwise it will affect your sleep at night.

(2) Eat a variety of foods and don’t always eat too much meat and fish.

The dietary guidelines recommend that we eat 12 kinds of food every day and 25 kinds of food every week. The types of food for dinner should not be too few. It is recommended to try to have vegetables, fruits and high-quality proteins such as meat, instead of just fish and meat.

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(3) Eat in moderation and avoid overeating.

We are used to having a simple lunch during the day and eating more for dinner. In fact, a healthy dinner should not be too much, let alone too much meat and fish. Because after dinner, there is less exercise, and eating too much and too much is more likely to cause obesity.

(4) Eat light food and avoid strong flavors.

If you eat too much greasy and sweet food for dinner, the calories are too high and you will gain weight easily; if it is too salty, it will be bad for your cardiovascular system. Therefore, try to eat a lighter dinner and avoid stir-frying, deep-frying, or dry-frying, which are high in oil and salt, for dinner.

References

[1]Xie, Z., Sun, Y., Ye, Y. et al. Randomized controlled trial for time-restricted eating in healthy volunteers without obesity. Nat Commun 13, 1003 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28662-5

Ulgherait, M., Midoun, AM, Park, SJ et al. Circadian autophagy drives iTRF-mediated longevity. Nature 598, 353–358 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03934-0

Source: Nutritionist Ruan Guangfeng