How eating dinner late is going to kill you

A new scientific study found eating dinner late is a serious health threat.

Dr Ebru Özpelit, associate professor of cardiology, Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey who led the research discovered that late-night meals can cause more damage to the heart than a diet that is high in salt.   She presented the findings at the European Society of Cardiology in Rome.

The findings are a wake-up call to most HongKonngers who often need to work overtime and need to have late-night meals.

The research team looked at more than 700 people with high blood pressure to see what difference their diet and eating times affect their condition.  They discovered that eating within two hours of going to bed leaves the body with an increased risk of heart attacks.

They explained that having meals less than two hours before going to bed leaves the body on 'high alert' and increases blood pressure overnight, which can cause risk to the heart.

The study also found that those eating dinner late are almost twice as likely to suffer from “non-dipper hypertension” - when blood pressure fails to drop dramatically overnight.

"We must define the ideal frequency and timing of meals because how we eat may be as important as what we eat. Eating breakfast is important, we should have a strong breakfast, we shouldn't skip lunch. We must have a small dinner and it mustn't be later than 7 o'clock in the evening.  Late night eating and skipping breakfast is such an erratic eating pattern which is becoming more prevalent day by day", Dr Özpelit told NetDoctor.

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