Does it sometimes feel like dinnertime just keeps slipping later and later into your evening routine? Well, a new study published in Nutrients has a case for keeping dinner early—specifically, just a few hours earlier than you might be used to—and it has to do with blood sugar.
Why an earlier dinnertime may be better for blood sugar balance.
In a small randomized crossover study, the researchers had the 12 participants (10 women and two men) either eat dinner “late” at 9 p.m. or an “early” dinner at 6 p.m. and monitored their blood sugar levels by having the participants wear continuous blood-glucose-measuring devices. Blood sugar levels were recorded every 15 minutes.
The results? Eating dinner a simple three hours earlier demonstrated positive effects on blood sugar levels. The group that ate an earlier dinner showed lowered blood sugar levels throughout the night, compared to the later group—even when the meals were the same. They also noted that in the group that ate dinner later, the average blood sugar level three hours after eating was higher.
Researchers further found that the earlier dinner group had a “more significant” decrease in MAGE—which stands for Mean Amplitude of Glycemic Excursions and serves as a measure of glycemic variability. When compared to the later group, on Day 2 the early diners also reported feeling a greater “desire to eat, capacity to eat, and hunger” late at night (around 11 p.m.).
The importance of managing blood sugar balance.
Balanced and steady blood sugar levels are important because blood sugar can be a contributor to different chronic health conditions over time. In healthy people, this study demonstrated that adjusting your dinnertime by just a bit may help with this important health metric.
But really, eating dinner earlier can also positively affect other key health factors. For example, earlier evening meals mean you can get to winding down sooner, which could lead to better sleep. Plus, managing blood sugar can positively affect many health outcomes, and there are a number of strategies that can help with blood sugar balance—from adjusting diet to exercising regularly.
Blood sugar balance is important for your overall health. And eating a few hours earlier may just be a strategic tool worth using.
