Previous research on cellular metabolism has shown that people who eat a larger breakfast are more likely to control their appetite, feel less hungry during the day, and have lower levels of appetite-stimulating hormones. Instead, levels of hormones associated with satiety increase. Naturally is more conducive to weight loss in the long run. As the saying goes, “Have a full breakfast and you will have the strength to lose weight”!

Recently, a large prospective cohort study covering more than 100,000 people published in the International Journal of Epidemiology showed that compared with people who were accustomed to eating breakfast before 8 a.m., participants who had breakfast after 9 a.m. The possibility of developing type 2 diabetes is 59% higher.

To sum up, if you eat breakfast 1 hour in advance, type 2 diabetes will stay away from you.

Statistics show that 463 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes in 2019; this number is expected to double by 2045. However, it is well known that most cases of type 2 diabetes are controllable. The occurrence of the disease mainly depends on modifiable risk factors, such as unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, smoking, etc., as well as meal timing.

Eating plays a key role in regulating circadian rhythms, including the regulation of blood sugar and lipid balance. For example, both glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity follow a certain circadian rhythm and reach their peak in the morning. Therefore, beta cell reactivity and insulin sensitivity are better at breakfast than at dinner. However, when the eating routine is broken, such as delaying the eating time, it may lead to circadian rhythm imbalance, which can lead to a series of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases.

To get a precise answer, researchers collected 103,312 participants from the NutriNet-Santé cohort and used 24-hour food records to assess when and how often participants ate.

According to different breakfast times, all participants were divided into three groups: those who had breakfast before 8 o’clock accounted for 44.77% of the total population, those who had breakfast between 8 and 9 o’clock accounted for 35.78%, and those who had breakfast after 9 o’clock accounted for 19.45%.

Basic information shows that people who habitually have breakfast before 8 o’clock tend to be older. Compared with the other two groups, participants who had breakfast earlier would finish dinner earlier, which is also consistent with people’s perceptions. Interestingly, people who had breakfast before 8 o’clock tended to have lower levels of physical activity and education.

After a median follow-up of 7.3 years, a total of 963 cases of type 2 diabetes were recorded.

The results showed that compared with those who had breakfast before 8 a.m., participants who had breakfast after 9 a.m. had a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes by 62%! Postponing dinner can also increase the incidence of type 2 diabetes. People who eat dinner after 9 pm have a 28% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who eat before 8 pm.

In addition, the researchers also explored the impact of eating frequency and nighttime fasting time on type 2 diabetes, and the results were interesting:

Eating smaller, more frequent meals appears to be better at controlling blood sugar – participants who ate five or more meals a day had a 20% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with those who ate four or fewer times a day.

There was no benefit from prolonged nighttime fasting – there was no difference in the risk of type 2 diabetes between the three groups, whether the nighttime fasting period was ≤12 hours, between 12-13 hours, or more than 13 hours. Unless paired with breakfast before 8 o’clock, longer night fasting will show health benefits, reducing the risk by about 53%.

The researchers concluded: This is the first study to comprehensively assess the association between eating time, eating frequency, and nighttime fasting duration and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Of the various factors assessed, eating breakfast later was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, again emphasizing the importance of eating breakfast before 8 pm.

A previous meta-analysis showed that skipping breakfast is associated with a 22% increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes; another cross-sectional study confirmed that replacing breakfast with late-night snacks can also induce hyperglycemia. This study once again clarifies the timing of breakfast with potential health benefits.

Of course, not only is it important to have breakfast early, but it’s also important to have dinner early! Recently, the latest research in the International Journal of Cancer shows that eating dinner before 9 pm every night can reduce the combined risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer by about 25%! Not only that, not going to bed immediately after a meal, but taking a rest for 2 hours before going to bed can also reduce the overall risk of cancer.

The study included 1,205 breast cancer and 621 prostate cases, as well as 1,321 female and 872 male controls, aged 20-85 years.

Among all participants, almost all had breakfast, lunch, and dinner, about one-third had afternoon tea, and about 7% had the habit of eating snacks after dinner. On average, people eat breakfast at 8:30 a.m., lunch at 2 p.m., and dinner at 9 p.m. Both sick and healthy controls had similar dietary patterns, whether on weekdays or weekends.

The results showed that people who went to bed 2 hours or more after dinner had a 20% lower risk of breast and prostate cancer compared with people who went to bed immediately after dinner. As the time between dinner and sleep increases, the risk of cancer decreases significantly, especially in prostate cancer, which is reduced by about 26%, but the correlation in breast cancer is not as strong.

Further analysis found that compared to eating dinner after 10 p.m., eating dinner before 9 p.m. was associated with an 18% lower risk of both cancers combined, and had a slightly greater impact on prostate cancer than breast cancer.

And if you eat dinner earlier every day (before 9 p.m.) and have a longer interval between dinner and sleep (>2 hours), your overall cancer risk will be significantly reduced by 24%!

It is not difficult to achieve. Just adjust your usual eating time forward by 1 hour and you will reap the health benefits! It’s better to change it from today.