Even when eating foods with a low glycemic index (GI), if you eat dinner too late, the blood sugar reaction after the meal will still increase significantly compared to eating early. Deferring dinner from 6pm to 8pm also causes blood sugar to increase, even in young people, who are healthy and have no problems controlling blood sugar. Eating late at night or eating a lot in the second half of the day is also associated with a higher risk of obesity.
Part of the reason is that melatonin - a hormone secreted a lot at night to prepare for sleep can inhibit insulin secretion, increasing blood sugar after eating carbohydrates. Some people are more sensitive to this factor due to genetic differences. However, eating too few carbohydrates for dinner can also cause inadequate melatonin production, causing difficulty sleeping.
For people who need to control blood sugar, eating dinner early and sleeping early is best. But for healthy people, there is no need to lose weight, have a normal insulin reaction and cannot sleep at 9pm, do not need to abstain from starch or eat dinner too early. If you have dinner at 5pm and go to bed at 11pm, a 6-hour gap can easily cause hunger; you can have a fruit snack, drink milk or soy milk at 5pm, then have dinner at 7pm will be more reasonable.
The most important thing is to get enough sleep, because long-term lack of sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and obesity. In addition, you should limit drinking a lot of alcohol in the evening because alcohol puts a burden on the liver, reduces sleep quality and easily makes you wake up in the middle of the night. Finally, avoid eating too much in the evening to avoid putting pressure on the stomach, intestines, liver and gallbladder.
