Summary: An Australian study finds that night shift workers who eat full meals or snacks overnight have worse glucose tolerance, increasing their risk of chronic health issues like diabetes and heart disease. Conducted over six days with 55 participants, the study showed that fasting at night helps maintain balanced blood sugar levels, while eating overnight disrupts insulin sensitivity. Researchers suggest that limiting eating to daytime hours could be a practical intervention for night shift workers’ health.
Key Takeaways:
- Night Eating Risks: Eating meals or snacks overnight worsens glucose tolerance and may elevate chronic health risks for night shift workers.
- Fasting Benefits: Fasting at night improved insulin response, helping maintain stable blood glucose levels.
- Potential Health Strategy: Researchers recommend night shift workers focus on eating during the day to manage health outcomes effectively.
Overnight eating may be putting night shift workers at higher risk of chronic health conditions, according to an Australian study published in Diabetologia.
Led by researchers from the University of South Australia, University of Adelaide, and SAHMRI, the study involved a six-day trial with 55 adults in the healthy BMI range, who don’t usually work night shifts.
Participants stayed at the University of South Australia’s Behaviour-Brain-Body Sleep Research Centre and were divided into three groups: those who fasted at night, those who had snacks, and those who ate full meals.
All participants stayed awake for four nights and slept during the day, with a recovery day on day five to re-establish normal sleeping and eating cycles, and blood glucose testing on day six.
Meals and Snacks Worsened Glucose Tolerance
Leonie Heilbronn, PhD, from SAHMRI and the University of Adelaide, says results showed participants who ate meals or snacks during the night shift had significantly worse glucose tolerance compared to those who fasted.
“We found that blood glucose skyrocketed for those who ate full meals at night and those who snacked, while the people who fasted at night showed an increase in insulin secretion which kept blood sugar levels balanced,” Heilbronn says in a news release. “We know shift workers are more likely to have diabetes. They’re more likely to have heart disease, and they’re more likely to be overweight. Our research suggests that meal timing could be a major contributor to those issues.”
Insulin sensitivity was disrupted among all participants, regardless of their eating habits, adding to the body of evidence that night shifts cause circadian misalignment and impair glucose metabolism.
“When you eat a meal, your body secretes insulin, and that insulin helps your muscles and other tissues to take up glucose. If you become resistant to insulin, then you can’t take up that glucose as effectively into your muscles, and if it continues, that potentially puts you at risk of diabetes,” she says in a release.
Implications and Future Research
Lead investigator UniSA professor Siobhan Banks, PhD, says not eating large meals while working night shift and instead eating primarily during the day could be a straightforward intervention to manage health outcomes for many workers.
“This could be easier for people to follow than other, more complex diets,” Banks says in a release.
Researchers say future trials will investigate whether eating only protein snacks on night shift is a potential solution to satiating hunger without predisposing workers to negative health consequences.
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