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<\/p>\nThe early bird might get the worm but night owls are paying the price for late-night snacking, a new study suggests. <\/p>\n
The study, published in Frontiers in Nutrition in July, analysed data from 287 healthy European and Pacific women in New Zealand aged 18 to 45.<\/p>\n
It compared health indicators among people with morning and evening chronotypes, often referred to as early birds and night owls, over five days. <\/p>\n
While participants tended to consume the same amount of calories, eating patterns and timing differed reliably between the two groups. <\/p>\n
Morning types consumed more of their daily energy between 3am and 10am while evening types ate more between 8pm and 3am. <\/p>\n
Later risers tended to have higher body mass indexes, body fat per centages and abdominal fat along with worse cholesterol and blood sugar markers.<\/p>\n
The difference likely came down to how the body processed food at different times during the day, Griffith University professor and co-author Rozanne Kruger said.<\/p>\n
“Our bodies best process food and energy early in the daytime,” she told AAP. <\/p>\n
“When we’re in a rest phase, our metabolic health clocks are also in a rest phase.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
File photo. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
While both groups tended to eat the same number of calories, night owls often skipped large meals and did more energy-dense snacking late at night. <\/p>\n
Lead co-author, University of Massey lecturer and self-proclaimed night owl Marilize Richter-Cottle said the research had inspired her to reflect on her dietary habits. <\/p>\n
“I’ve definitely reflected on my habits, and have started to pay extra attention to mealtimes and bedtime,” she said. <\/p>\n
Despite being a nutrition researcher, Richter-Cottle said she found it difficult not to have her meals crawl later into the evening. <\/p>\n
“I have to be very conscious about my routines, such as getting daylight immediately when I wake up to reset my internal clock earlier, and I try to mostly stick to a 6 to 7pm cut-off for eating,” she said. <\/p>\n
“But I don’t always achieve this, especially if I let myself stay up later than usual.”<\/p>\n
Asked what other night owls should take from the study, she advised cutting off food two to three hours before bed, rather than attempting to overhaul natural sleeping patterns. <\/p>\n
“It’s not just as easy as getting in bed and eating early if your natural rhythm tells you otherwise,” she said. <\/p>\n
Kruger said the findings should not be interpreted as proof night owls were inherently less healthy and pointed to several limitations. <\/p>\n
For instance, the study only included a limited group of same-sex participants and a relatively small pool of early risers. <\/p>\n
“I would say that anything about food intake and body weight is not a simple case of people eating too much, or eating too little,” she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The early bird might get the worm but night owls are paying the price for late-night snacking, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,85,46,543],"class_list":["post-541506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}