How many of us can honestly say that we have never committed night raids on the refrigerator because of uncontrolled hunger or craving for sweets?.

If food at night is just a couple of episodes a year, it's okay.

However, the new study claims that regular meals at night are associated with an increased risk of diabetes and severe heart disease, up to an infarction.

Night overeating has long been under the scrutiny of doctors - he even received a special term, a nighttime appetite syndrome (SNA).

Once scientists have proved that the night chase for some types of nutrients, especially for carbohydrates, is explained by the need inherited from prehistoric ancestors.

In ancient times, man depended entirely on nature and circumstances, so before going to sleep, no one knew when the next time he would eat his fill. The need to grab an extra piece at night was one of the important conditions for the survival of people.

Today, in the era of hypodynamia, abundance and gluttony, every extra piece at night is a direct road to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

And the connection between the syndrome of nocturnal appetite and diseases of civilization is due not so much to the nutritional value of the eaten products, as to the peculiarities of our metabolism, the internal clock of the human body. The body is adapted to the natural cycle of day-night, which determines the ideal time for eating, sleeping, physical activity and other things.

If the internal clock is ignored, your health and well-being are at stake.

It is scientifically proven that eating food in violation of the normal circadian rhythm contributes to a set of excess weight.

The results of a new study conducted at the National Autonomous University of Mexico should further scare the night gluttons.

Professor Ruud Buijs and his colleagues say food at night is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and heart attack. According to the professor, "turning" the biological clock on its head can increase the fat and triglyceride levels in the blood and disrupt the exchange of glucose.

Details of the work were published by the journal Experimental Physiology.

Forget about food when you need to sleep Professor Buys and his team conducted a series of experiments on rats, trying to track the effect of circadian rhythm on the triglyceride levels in the blood.

It was found that in animals that are fed at an unnatural time of day, the concentration of triglycerides significantly exceeds the norm. But as soon as the rodents began to feed according to the usual schedule, the content of triglycerides was normalized. The composition and amount of feed did not change.

Finally, scientists decided to remove the rats part of the brain - suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is responsible for the regulation of circadian rhythm. After the operation, the level of triglycerides ceased to depend on the feeding time, that is, the biological clock was "stopped".

The conclusion was unequivocal: eating at night is a gross violation of circadian rhythm, painfully perceived by the body and leading to serious metabolic consequences. In our case, this leads to diabetes, heart attack, stroke.

Professor Bouilles warns that shift work with night dinners can have disastrous consequences for the health of workers.

As for "owls" who like to sit at a computer or book after midnight, they are advised to eat snacks in the early evening and not to open the refrigerator until morning.

"The fact that we are able to ignore the biological clock is important for the survival of the individual. We can escape from danger at night, sleeping during the day. But the regular violence over their nature does not pass without a trace, "say scientists.

Forget about food at a time when you should sleep.

medbe. en.