- Eating starchy vegetables like potatoes early in the day may benefit people with diabetes, research suggests.
- The study data found that people with diabetes were less likely to have heart disease if they timed their food intake.
- The best results were linked to eating carbohydrates at breakfast, whole grains at lunch and vegetables at dinner.
if you have
diabetes
eating more carbohydrates in the morning and green leafy vegetables at night can help you live longer, according to new research published March 15 in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Researchers at Harbin Medical University in China analyzed data from 4,642 Americans with diabetes over 11 years of follow-up as part of the NHANES Study. They compared eating habits, based on 24-hour eating questionnaires, with levels of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality over time.
The researchers found that participants who ate carbohydrate-rich vegetables like potatoes earlier in the day were less likely to die of
heart disease
. The same was true for participants who ate whole grains in the afternoon and those who ate dark leafy vegetables in the evening.
In contrast, eating a lot of processed meat at night was linked to a higher risk of dying from heart disease, according to the data.
The researchers’ data modeling suggested that changing even a tenth of a serving to a more ideal meal time was linked to a significant reduction in risk; for example, swapping a serving of potatoes from dinner for breakfast, or whole grains from breakfast for lunch.
The results suggest that nutrient timing could help people with diabetes adapt their meals to the natural biological rhythms of insulin sensitivity to improve their longevity.
“Nutritional guidelines and intervention strategies for diabetes need to integrate optimal food intake times in the future,” study co-author Dr. Qingrao Son, a researcher at Harbin Medical University, said in a news release.
Previous research suggests that a hearty breakfast and light dinner may also have other health benefits
The study is supported by Previous research by the same authors which found that people with diabetes had better survival rates if they regularly ate a larger breakfast than dinner.
Meal timing can also be important, whether or not you have diabetes. Skipping breakfast isn’t always a deciding factor for a healthy diet, but it’s associated with more variable blood sugar levels and possibly decreased performance at work, school, and the gym. experts previously told Insider.
Eating earlier in the day and less at night is also linked to a healthy weight, possibly because it helps you avoid late night snack attacks trending toward less nutritious, calorie-dense foods like potato chips, alcohol, and the like.
While more research is needed on meal timing, what you eat in general may still be more important than when you eat, studies suggest.
