Research shows that eating breakfast after 9 a.m. can significantly increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to eating breakfast earlier. The study looked at the eating patterns of more than 100,000 participants and found that meal timing influences diabetes risk, with late breakfasts having a negative impact on blood sugar control and insulin levels.
A study that followed more than 100,000 participants for seven years suggested that eating breakfast after 9 a.m. increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 59%, highlighting the importance of meal timing in preventing the disease. It is emphasized.
Eating breakfast after 9am increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 59% compared to those who eat breakfast before 8am. This study was supported by the La Caixa Foundation. These are the main conclusions of a study involving the institution ISGlobal, which followed more than 100,000 participants in a French cohort. These results show that you can reduce your risk of diabetes by changing not only what you eat, but also when you eat.
Effects of meal timing
Type 2 diabetes is associated with modifiable risk factors such as an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and smoking. But another factor may be important. It’s time to eat. “We know that meal timing plays an important role in regulating circadian rhythms and controlling blood sugar and lipids, but few studies have investigated the relationship between meal timing or fasting and type 2 diabetes.” said Anna Palomarcross, researcher at ISGlobal and lead author of the book. the study.
In this study, a team from ISGlobal joined a team from INSERM in France to investigate the association between meal frequency and timing and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in 103,312 adults (79% women) from the NutriNet-Santé cohort in France. We investigated gender. Participants completed an online dietary record of what they ate, what they drank, and the timing of their meals over a 24-hour period over three consecutive days. The researchers averaged the dietary records from the first two years of follow-up and assessed the participants’ health over the following years (an average of seven years).
Breakfast, dinner, and incidence of diabetes
There were 963 new cases of type 2 diabetes during the study period. The risk of developing the disease was significantly higher for those who regularly ate breakfast after 9 a.m. compared to those who ate breakfast before 8 a.m.similarly insulin level,” Palomarcross explains. “This is consistent with two meta-analyses that concluded that skipping breakfast increases the risk of type 2 diabetes,” she added.
The researchers also found that late dinners (after 10 p.m.) seemed to increase risk, but eating more frequently (about five times a day) was associated with lower rates of illness. In contrast, long-term fasts are only effective if you eat an early breakfast (before 8 a.m.) and an early dinner.
Conclusions and implications for chrononutrition
“Our results suggest that eating your first meal before 8am and your last meal before 7pm may help reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes.” concludes Manolis Koževinas, ISGlobal researcher and co-author of the study. In fact, the same he ISGlobal team had already provided evidence. Early dinner linked to lower risk of breast or prostate cancer.
Taken together, these results solidify the use of chrononutrition (i.e., the link between diet, circadian rhythms, and health) to prevent type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases.
Reference: “Association of Meal Timing, Number of Meal Occasions, and Overnight Fasting Duration with Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in the NutriNet-Santé Cohort” by Anna Palomar-Cros, Bernard Srour, Valentina A Andreeva, Léopold K Fezeu, Alice Bellicha), Emmanuel Kesse-Guillot, Serge Elkberg, Dora Romaguera, Manolis Kogevinas, Mathilde Touvier, June 16, 2023. International Journal of Epidemiology.
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyad081
Funding: PRE2019-089038/Spanish Ministry of Economy
