Best Times To Eat

April 21, 2024

Discover the best times to eat and help maintain a healthy lifestyle

Research shows that metabolic processes such as appetite and digestion follow a pattern similar to the circadian rhythm, our 24-hour sleep-wake cycle, and timing our meals and drink can make all the difference to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

7am: glug water first thing

Drinking enough water — 1.3 litres a day, according to latest research — is essential to mood, brain function and energy levels, and we benefit from starting as soon as the alarm sounds. Fill a glass in the evening and leave by the bedside is a good way to jog the memory.

8am: eggs for breakfast can prolong energy

Some extol the benefits of intermittent fasting in which case breakfast is the meal to go as we eat in an eight-hour window, normally from midday to 8.00pm.

Against that is the evidence that those who do eat breakfast are healthier. A 2019 study in the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease, for example, showed that people who regularly missed this meal were 21 per cent more likely to experience potentially fatal cardiovascular disease, with their risk of all causes of death 32 per cent higher.

Some even suggest that breakfast should be your biggest meal of the day. It’s reported that people have greater insulin resistance in the evening — meaning fewer calories eaten in the evening are converted to energy than those eaten at breakfast.

9am: hold off on coffee for two hours after waking up

This concurs with what we wrote in our Metabolic Reset post as levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which makes us feel alert, are influenced by our circadian rhythm and peak about 45 minutes after waking. Letting cortisol plateau or decline slightly, therefore, before raising it again by drinking caffeine, makes for a longer morning peak. 

1pm: give late lunches a miss

The journal Nutrients published research in 2019 showed that people who ate the meal after 3pm had decreased tolerance to glucose (increasing the risk of diabetes) and inverted diversity of microbiota in their saliva as compared to early eating, which could potentially impair the metabolism.

Eating more protein at lunch is beneficial to health. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen concluded eating mostly carbohydrates for lunch and protein for dinner had a negative impact on blood sugar levels, increasing cravings, while eating protein for lunch “significantly” raised diet-induced thermogenesis — the rate at which the body burns calories. A protein-rich lunch helps stabilise blood sugar levels and stops the need to snack in the afternoon.

3pm: Tea rather than coffee and a snack

With less caffeine per cup than coffee (around 47mg compared to 95mg), tea in the afternoon is less likely to stress the nervous system or keep you awake than a latte.

Tannin, a polyphenol found in tea, can cause nausea in people with sensitive digestive systems if consumed on an empty stomach. To mitigate this, it’s wise to drink tea with an afternoon snack, such as sliced banana and peanut butter on oat cakes, and add a splash of milk. Protein and carbohydrates in the snack and milk bind to tannins, reducing their potential to irritate the digestive tract.

7pm: only drink wine with dinner

Our liver has a better chance of digesting alcohol before bedtime, meaning we’re not woken up by the process or plummeting blood sugar levels, if we stop drinking four hours before we go to sleep.

A 2003 study on college students published in the journal Sleep found that while evening alcohol consumption impaired memory, drinking in the late afternoon did not, due to less impact on REM sleep. It’s better to drink alcohol with dinner rather than on an empty stomach, as food slows the passage of alcohol into the small intestine, where it is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, thus reducing side effects.

7pm: To carb or not to carb

Simple carbohydrates can be detrimental to weight loss as they convert to fat more easily than protein. Eating a big bowl of pasta at 7pm is more likely to be stored as fat because we are less sensitive to insulin in the evening and tend to be less active, compared to eating it earlier in the day.

Carbohydrates with dinner are good for promoting sleep because, unlike protein, carbohydrates increase the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which reduces anxiety and helps with winding down in the evening. Not all carbohydrates are created equal: complex carbohydrates like brown rice or new potatoes are lower in sugars than simple carbohydrates like white rice and chips. They can provide comfort food satisfaction. When combined with turkey, which contains tryptophan, and roast vegetables, you get the best of all worlds.

8.30pm: fast for three hours before bed — unless it’s pistachios or cherries

Eating at night keeps the body on “high alert,” releasing stress hormones that prevent it from winding down. Blood pressure should drop by at least 10% in preparation for sleep, but eating interrupts this process. According to Harvard, men who regularly snack at midnight have a 55% higher chance of developing coronary heart disease. Similarly, research at King’s College London shows that people who snack after 9 pm experience larger blood sugar spikes and higher concentrations of fat in their blood.

If you are hungry it’s best to choose a snack high in melatonin such as pistachios and tart cherries — studies have indicated that cherry juice can improve sleep function. 

Read our post on healthy foods