The mealtimes of people with diabetes and when they eat certain foods may be just as important to their well-being as portion size and calories, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Type 2 diabetes is a largely diet and lifestyle-based condition as making changes to your diet and exercise routine are some of the first recommendations you will receive from doctors if you are prediabetic or have type 2 diabetes. Previous studies focus on the health impact of the quantity and quality of different foods or nutrients and their ability to manage diabetes, but new studies have revealed that your mealtimes and what food you eat for those meals can also impact your diabetes.
The Chronotype Diet
The average person’s mealtimes should be in line with their biological clock, which is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep–wake cycle and repeats every 24 hours. This is called a Chronotype Diet and varies depending on the person. It is associated with the concept of being a night owl or an early riser, because some people get hunger cues early in the morning and others don’t get them until hours later. This can also be applied to what food you eat for each meal. This new study has divulged that health outcomes for people with diabetes may be improved if certain foods are eaten at different times of the day.
Mealtime Can Affect Your Diabetes
The researchers analyzed data from over 4,000 people with diabetes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine their risk of dying from heart disease. They found people with diabetes who ate potatoes or starchy vegetables in the morning, whole grains in the afternoon, and dark vegetables such as greens and broccoli and milk in the evening were less likely to die from heart disease. Those who ate a lot of processed meat in the evening were more likely to die from heart disease.
“We observed that eating potatoes in the morning, whole grains in the afternoon, greens and milk in the evening and less processed meat in the evening was associated with better long-term survival in people with diabetes,” said Qingrao Song, M.D., of Harbin Medical University in Harbin, China. “Nutritional guidelines and intervention strategies for diabetes should integrate the optimal consumption times for foods in the future.”
Making Your Diabetes Worse
In relation to this study, other tangential studies have also found that breakfast skipping, having a high daytime eating frequency, higher energy intake at dinner, and late-night eating are associated with poorer cardio-metabolic health and greater incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Contrarily, another recent study found that the consumption of higher energy foods at breakfast with lower energy foods at dinner was associated with a better long-term survival among people with diabetes. This further highlights the connection between when and what you eat for your meals and increasing or decreasing your risk of diabetes. So, if you have some of these habits or are at risk of developing diabetes, schedule an appointment with a nutritionist to discuss what meals would work best to counteract your diabetes and when you should eat them.
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The study received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The Chronotype Diet: Eating in Sync with Your Internal Clock
