Should dinner be the smallest meal of the day?

Q: I heard that dinner is your biggest meal of the day. Is it true?

The maxim has been for decades: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a impoverished man.” Experts say this is not a bad advice. It is also the opposite of how most people eat them in the United States, and dinner is often the biggest meal of the day.

Marta Garaulet, a professor of physiology at the University of Murcia in Spain, spends a few months a year in the United States. She noticed that many Americans are often so busy that they don’t have time to eat a significant meal until the evening. This is a striking contrast with eating habits in Spain (i Other European countries), where lunch is usually the biggest meal. A customary dinner is airy, consisting of something like a vegetable or fish soup, a piece of bread with cheese and salads.

Scientists are still thinking how the size of the meal and time can affect health. But they know one thing: it’s probably best to avoid dinner of your biggest meal, said Dr. Garaulet.

Why meal size and time

For decades, nutritional researchers focus on what they eat when they eat, so we don’t have many enormous or long-term research on the influence of meal time on health, said Nour Macarm, an epidemiology assistant professor at Colombia University Mailman School of Public Health.

But she said Studies that exist Some coherent links. People who consume a larger percentage of calories in the evening are usually more vulnerable to obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and a higher level of inflammation.

The inner clock of your organism, which regulates, how your cells can be at least partly guilty, said Frank Ajl Scheer, director of the Chronobiology Medical program in Brigham and the Women’s Hospital in Boston.

In the morning, he said, your body is prepared to deal with a enormous meal. It is ready to absorb the nutrients and spread them into the cells to drive the activities of the day. But gradually, when the day is treated, organs that aid metabolize nutrients, such as liver and pancreas, begin to react more slowly.

Scientists apparently see these effects in blood sugar levels. If you eat two identical meals, one in the morning and one in the evening, yours The blood sugar spikes will be larger Dr. Scheer said he would remain elevated longer after the evening meal.

And when the level of melatonin – the hormone that signals, time to sleep – will augment hour or two before bedtime, it suppresses Insulin secretion Dr. Garaulet said from the pancreas, hindering the body to regulate blood sugar levels.

Dr. Garaulet said that if your blood sugar level is often increased from great evening meals, the risk of developing high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, obesity and type 2 diabetes may augment.

Studies also suggest that eating enormous meals at night can augment the activity of some metabolic paths that lead to storage of fat during sleep, said Dr. Scheer.

In fact in 2022 review Of the nine attempts to lose weight, scientists have found that those who consumed the most calories during breakfast or lunch lost a bit more importance than those who consumed the most calories during dinner. They also had better readings of insulin cholesterol, glucose and LDL (or “bad”).

IN Last last testResearchers discovered that people were less hungry all day when their biggest meal was breakfast than during dinner, said Alexandra Johnstone, a nutrition professor at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, who conducted the study.

Expert advice

Dr. Macarm said that dinner does not necessarily have to be your smallest meal that day. But it’s best not to be the largest and it’s best to avoid eating tardy evening. She suggested looking for miniature ways to eat more calories earlier on the same day.

Dr. Johnstone said that start with the nutritional priority of breakfast, which includes protein and planting prosperous, such as Greek yogurt, eggs or beans. People sometimes tell her that they are not hungry in the morning, but this can be caused by a enormous dinner last night, she said.

Dr. Garaulet also added that also try to find a significant lunch. When dinner comes, you will be less hungry and you will eat a larger meal less often. And you can be less attached by snacks tardy at night.

If you feel hungry during dinner or later in the evening, Dr. Macarm suggested facilitating processed food and high in added sugars and soda. Instead, priority treat food products for lower calories that will fill you without growth in blood sugar, such as legumes, grilled fish, chicken breasts, vegetables, fruits and whole grains.