Could eating late in the day promote weight gain in a way that has nothing to do with calories?
Posted on 7 September 2009
A mere 10 days ago one of my posts highlighted a study which had, apparently, found that a low carb diet was found to induce increased amounts of atherosclerosis (a key underlying process in the development of cardiovascular conditions such as heart attacks and strokes) in mice. I was sceptical of this study, partly on account of the fact that mice are not men (or women), and using them as a model for human disease is not always advised. There is also the matter of the huge volume of research which attests to the fact that low-carb diets have a range of favourable effects in humans, including weight loss and several markers of disease including blood fat, blood sugar and insulin levels.
However, I do not dismiss animal studies out-of-hand. I will and do refer to them sometimes when they genuinely appear to enhance our understanding of the relationship between, say, nutrition and health. For example, in my very last post I referred to a rat study which showed that artificial sweeteners appear to have the capacity to induce (not protect against) weight gain, compared to sugar.
And it
Published September 7, 2009 . Filed under: Healthy Eating, Unhealthy Eating!, Weight Loss
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September 7, 2009 @ 6:09 pm
[...] Original post by Dr John Briffa’s Blog [...]
September 7, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
In my homeopathy course we have had to study pathology (for alternative practitioners) and the text was a book written by a MD who researched into alternative care, Dr Stephen Gascoigne “The Clinical Medicine Guide, A holistic perspective”, which mentions in the section on Gastrointestinal system that in Chinese Medicine the time when the “absorptive” function of the body is at its highest is from about 7 a.m. till 9 a.m. and remains relatively increased till 11 a.m. while in the daily cycle the lowest time is correspondingly 12 hours later… While I would highly recommend you this well-referenced book, I guess it would also be interesting to look for studies that research the amount of digestive enzymes released throughout the day, and one would think that your idea will thus be substantiated both by age-long observations of Chinese medical tradition and modern scientific research.
Besides, I would like to thank you for your informative posts on important health matters!
EZ
September 10, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
I’ve found significant difference in what I need to eat at different times and IMO this relates to insulin resistance. Mine is highest in the morning so that’s when I am most carb-intolerant, I am strictly limited to 15g carbs. By evening I can usually do 30 – 50g without my BG going out of range, and on occasion I can do substantially more with only a comparatively minor rise.
Many diabetics suffer from “Dawn Phenomenon” where BG continues to rise *until* something is eaten, usually containing suifficient carbs to generate enough insulin to shut down glucagon but not enough to send BG high. A common way of dealing with this is a late night snack containing protein and fat (and red wine), relatively slowly digested stuff which means the liver doesn’t overreact to potential starvation.
Defective insulin output makes these phenomena more noticeable, theoretically nondiabetics also generate a glucose load in the morning but it’s covered by a parallel dump of insulin. With insulin resistance or reduced Phase i insulin output this doesn’t work right, it only needs to be out by about 5g glucose for your BG to double.
David Mendosa has a good take on the Satiety Index
http://mendosa.com/satiety.htm
My experience is that I work best with a high protein moderate fat low carb breakfast, and lower protein higher fat combinations later in the day. I can usually go 6 hours or so between meals with few snacks and keep my BG level, and the lipid panels tell me this also avoids hyperinsulinemia.
There’s a large degree of YMMV between individuals though, some diabetics have a much greater diurnal slope to their IR, others with reactive hypoglycemia may need to eat less more frequently (which I previously tried), then leptin and other things may be a factor, and the driver of the diurnal variations may have more or less effect.
Isn’t it curious though that researchers always try to stuff mice, which are carb eaters, with fat, and humans, who aren’t, with carbs? Not doing that might be a good plan whatever the time of day.
September 11, 2009 @ 9:44 pm
At this years Wimbledon championships the commentators kept referring to the fact that Andy Roddick had taken off all the weight he had put on since he last won Wimbledon (TEN YEARS AGO?) by not eating any carbohydrates after lunch.
September 12, 2009 @ 7:42 am
[...] further solidify this position, I’d like to reference another article (that uses ACTUAL HUMAN RESEARCH – w00t).
November 11, 2009 @ 5:00 pm