Try This – A Super-Simple Tip for Reducing Your Type 2 Diabetes Risk 1/19

Hi Everyone! We know that WHAT we eat is a huge predictor of our overall health.

If we overeat ultra-processed food riddled with bad fats and funky ingredients, we are setting ourselves up to gain weight and driving up our risk of chronic disease. If we do the opposite—eat well and the right amounts for our bodies—we lower our risk of becoming unwell. 

BUT, what if I told you there was something as important as what you eat that could determine your risk of developing things like type 2 diabetes? 

It’s WHEN you eat. 

We’ve all heard of our circadian rhythm, right? This is the natural 24-hour cycle that a human being experiences, and it is heavily impacted by light and dark, the food we eat, our physical activity, and so much more. 

When we interrupt our natural circadian rhythm by not sleeping when it’s dark out, having a midnight snack every single night, and ramping up our stress response when we should be resting, we’re more likely to struggle with dis-ease. 

And now researchers are pointing to a super-simple way to honor our circadian rhythm that can actually prevent our risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

And it’s all about WHEN you eat. 

Let’s dive in… 

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Quantity, Quality, and Timing 

Type 2 diabetes affects millions of Americans, and the problem is only getting worse. 

Here’s a quick refresher: type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that is influenced by several lifestyle factors, including physical activity, food quality, food quantity, and even food timing. When we overeat an abundance of sugars, refined carbohydrates, and ultra-processed foods, our bodies eventually become resistant to the effects of insulin, which sets the stage for developing type 2 diabetes. 

The good news about this disease is that we have so much control over preventing it and even reversing it by using the power of food and food timing. 

A study published in the Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders aimed to look at the relationship between the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and DBI, or dinner-bedtime interval. 

DBI is a measure of how much time there is between the last meal of the day and bedtime. Basically, how soon after you eat dinner do you fall asleep? 

The study, which started with a baseline survey between 2015 and 2017 and had a follow-up survey from 2018 to 2021, included 776 participants. As part of this survey, subjects were asked in face-to-face interviews what time they ate their last meal of the day and what time they went to bed. Then they either verified a type 2 diabetes diagnosis via fasting blood sugar or from physicians. 

What they found was pretty fascinating! Individuals who had a shorter DBI, meaning there was less time between their last meal and their bedtime, had higher incidences of type 2 diabetes! 

In fact, a DBI of three hours or more was found to be protective. Anything less than three hours increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. 

For example, if your bedtime is 9:00 p.m., your dinner time should be 6:00 p.m. or earlier. 

Previous studies have shown that eating dinner later in the night is associated with hyperglycemia, weight gain, and disrupted sleep. The authors of this study also discuss the idea that too much melatonin during mealtime can impact our body’s ability to utilize glucose. Other studies show that eating later in the day can impact the thermic effect of food (meaning the energy it takes to break down, absorb, and metabolize our food). 

There were some limitations to this study; for example, because of the nature of the study, researchers were not able to determine the causal relationship between DBI and type 2 diabetes. Additionally, participants' answers were self-reported, which always leaves some room for error. But, the study did look at a pretty large sample size, which is a strength! 

I personally have found my health to improve when I eat further away from bedtime. My sleep is better, I struggle with less brain fog, and I have fewer cravings the next day.  

Try This: Give Your Digestive System a Rest 

Thanks to the work of folks like Dr. Satchin Panda, we are understanding more and more every day just how important our circadian rhythms are—especially when it comes to when we sleep and when we eat. If you want to learn more about this, check out my interview with him here. 

And now, thanks to studies like the ones featured in today’s article, we have a clearer framework for how food timing can impact our risk of developing diseases. 

Here are three ways to optimize your circadian rhythm with the power of food. 

1. Eat your last meal at least three hours before bed. I try to eat my last meal at 6:00 p.m. and I’m usually in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. After dinner, I take a walk and clean the kitchen to give my body plenty of time to digest before bed. Some folks cannot make this work due to health conditions or other factors, but if you can experiment with giving your body three hours of food-free time before bed, you might see some major benefits. Also, it’s not about being perfect and doing this 100 percent of the time; it’s about doing this when you are at home, following your routine. There’s nothing wrong with a late dinner here and there when celebrating with loved ones and friends.

2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. This is an old saying that essentially means eating your heaviest meals earlier in the day. If you practice any form of time-restricted eating, front-loading calories (versus saving all of your calories for later in the day) seems to have a positive impact when it comes to our sleep-wake cycles, fat burning, and overall health. I typically try to eat a big breakfast and a decent-sized lunch and go lighter for dinner. That’s what makes me feel the best, but I also recognize there’s so much variation in human beings. My trainer says he feels best having a big meal for dinner. Go figure!

3. Try the 12-hour window. We all practice some form of fasting when we sleep at night. While longer fasting windows are not for everyone, I recommend trying the 12-hour window, which means that you fast for at least 12 hours overnight. So if you have your last meal by 6:00 p.m., you won’t have your breakfast until 6:00 a.m. or later the next day. This gives your body a chance to repair without having to do the exhaustive work of digesting constantly. I typically fast for 14 hours overnight, but 12 hours is a good place to start if you haven’t experimented with longer fasting windows. 

These are some super-simple ways to use the power of WHEN you eat to optimize your health. We have tons of easy tools at our disposal. Remember, good health doesn’t have to be complicated. By incorporating easy habits like this, you’re one step closer to achieving your goals. 

Here’s to your health, Dhru Purohit