Fasting at night lowers risk of breast cancer and diabetes

[melissa589]

A night time snack might seem like a harmless treat, but a new study suggests it could raise the risk of breast cancer and diabetes.

Researchers have discovered that fasting at night is crucial for good health and people who snack in the early hours are putting themselves at risk of disease.

It is the first study to show that nocturnal eating should be avoided to allow the body’s metabolism to work in alignment with natural sleep-wake cycles.

Eating regular meals at set times and then waiting longer between dinner and breakfast appears to regulate blood sugar and lower risk of illness.

For every three hours of extra fasting at night women were 20 per cent less likely to have hyperglycemia - or high blood sugar - a known risk factor for breast cancer and diabetes.

"Increasing the duration of overnight fasting could be a novel strategy to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer,” said lead author Catherine Marinac, a doctoral student at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

"This is a simple dietary change that we believe most women can understand and adopt. It may have a big impact on public health without requiring complicated counting of calories or nutrients."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...owers-risk-of-breast-cancer-and-diabetes.html

This article has big value for me, and you?

 

[LucySW]

What it's really saying, for me, is that our eating cycle should match our daylight cycle. This is another piece of evidence saying that we uncouple our circadian sleep/wake cycles from daylight/ darkness at our peril.

So it's saying that we should be completing our evening meal by 7.

I'm totally sure that's right. Unfortunately a lot of people can't follow that pattern, and even for some who can its a struggle. A struggle worth persevering with, though.

And as this is talking about glycemic control and HbA1c, obviously it's directly relevant to diabetics.

 

[Indy51]

Makes me even happier with my new dietary experiment. I'd already got into the habit of eating my biggest meal at lunchtime and eating lightly in the hours before bedtime because of gastric reflux. I find sleeping quite difficult except on an empty stomach. I'm now eating only twice a day - breakfast and lunch, then averaging 16-17 hours fasting till the next day. It's surprised me how easy it is to follow - I'm up to day 42 now.

I'm hoping I can keep the compressed eating window regime going until I lose some more weight and hopefully make some improvements to BG - I'm still in the slightly overweight category and suspect my personal fat threshold is quite low. 3kgs down now and hoping for at least another 3kgs. Fingers crossed.

 

[vintageutopia]

Interesting read. Thank you for posting this.

I might give it a whirl. I tend to sleep better if I don't eat before bed, so it is worth trying to see if it impacts my BS.

 

[graj0]

The connection to BG is understandable but the word that jumped out of the page was "may" and the last bit of the report says a lot.

"Researchers recommend large-scale clinical trials to confirm that nighttime fasting results in favorable changes to biomarkers of glycemic control and breast cancer risk".

Early days? Snacking during the night is obviously (in my mind) not a good idea, just because of the unwanted calories. As someone who sleeps very poorly I'm aware of the temptation and I have to take precautions not to fall fowl of the snack monster (timed combination lock on fridge LOL).

 

[LucySW]

Indy51, compressed eating intervals - is it called intermittent fasting? - is the hottest thing these days, so you're in the vanguard!

 

[Indy51]

Indy51, compressed eating intervals - is it called intermittent fasting? - is the hottest thing these days, so you're in the vanguard!

Yes, intermittent fasting is another term for it

 

[melissa589]

What it's really saying, for me, is that our eating cycle should match our daylight cycle. This is another piece of evidence saying that we uncouple our circadian sleep/wake cycles from daylight/ darkness at our peril.

So it's saying that we should be completing our evening meal by 7.

I'm totally sure that's right. Unfortunately a lot of people can't follow that pattern, and even for some who can its a struggle. A struggle worth persevering with, though.

And as this is talking about glycemic control and HbA1c, obviously it's directly relevant to diabetics.

I absolutely agree with you, lots of people can't follow that pattern, but we need struggle to do like this. We need uncoupling our circadian wake/sleep cycles from darkness/daylight, it is very important to me. I believe others will not down and follow it.

 

[melissa589]

Interesting read. Thank you for posting this.

I might give it a whirl. I tend to sleep better if I don't eat before bed, so it is worth trying to see if it impacts my BS.

It surealy impacts it. If you tend to sleep better when you don't eat anything before bed, Keep it up.

 

[iHs]

Unfoftunately, there are many insulin dependant diabetics who through no real fault of their own, suffer from low bg during the night in bed and the only way if adjusting basal doesnt help, need to eat a small snack to avoid nocturnal hypos. Better to avoid nocturnal hypos than worry about breast cancer risk.

 

[Nuthead]

I wonder how this affects shift and night workers ???