RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—It has happened to the best of us—3 a.m. rolls around, and the kitchen suddenly becomes an all-night café, complete with a smorgasbord of goodies to quell our nocturnal hunger. A postmidnight meal here or there is harmless, but fitting the description of a chronic night eater means you run a higher risk of being obese, according to a study published this month in the journal Obesity. And that’s linked to all sorts of problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even cancer. The good news is you can adjust your eating habits to keep nighttime fried raids to a minimum.
THE DETAILS: Swedish researchers investigated night eating to see if it is linked to body-mass index (BMI), eating disorders, and/or sleep problems by comparing obese and nonobese twins. For this study of more than 20,000 people, night eating was defined as getting out of bed at least one night a week to eat, or eating at least 25 percent of your daily calories after dinner. Contradicting previous studies, this study found that men were more likely to engage in night eating than women. The obese men were also more prone to night eating, with 8.4 percent of them running for midnight snacks, compared to 3.8 percent of the normal-weight men. For the normal-weight and obese women, the prevalence of night eating was 2.8 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. Night eating was also associated with higher risk of binge eating and sleep problems in both the men and women.
WHAT IT MEANS: Midnight snacking is an easy habit to get into, but do it too often and those nighttime calories could add up to unhealthy weight gain.
Here’s how to avoid overindulging when the sun goes down:
• Check for hunger pangs. If you find yourself standing in front of the fridge at 4 a.m., before you reach for that piece of pie, take a few moments to analyze what your body is feeling. Is your stomach really starving and growling about like a cranky lion? Or is the urge to indulge coming from above your shoulders? If you aren’t feeling it in your gut, you are most likely searching for comfort food—calories you really don’t need at the moment.
• Be with yourself for a few minutes. Before you eat something, go sit down for a few minutes and just be with yourself. Focus on your breath (but don’t try to control it). Pay attention to how it feels when your lungs fill up with air, and when you breathe out. This is called mindfulness, and it’s been proven to be effective in combating binge-eating problems.
• Keep a presleep journal. Before you go to sleep, clear your mental cache. Write down things that you’re worried about, or tasks you have to tackle the next day or later in the week. That will give you a sense of control and will help you drift off in a more relaxed state, without being pushed towards the fridge by stress and anxiety.
• Know they’re out to get you. If you’ve read former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler’s new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite