We’ve long been told that it’s best to avoid heavy meals in the evening, but surprising new research by the 5:2 diet’s creator, Dr Michael Mosley, has revealed that eating carbs later in the day may not be such a bad idea after all…
The normal advice is to eat carbohydrates early on, as this gives your body more time to burn off the glucose they release and avoid weight gain.
But the new study, which featured on the BBC’s Trust Me I’m A Doctor last night (17 January), showed that eating carbs in the evening caused a less dramatic blood sugar spike than consuming them first thing.
There was one small catch, though: this is only the case if you avoid eating high-carb foods at breakfast and lunch.
Dr Mosley and researchers at the University of Surrey discovered this after getting healthy volunteers to eat the majority of their daily carb intake either in the morning or the evening for five days, before switching things up.
Their blood sugar levels were also measured throughout the 10-day study.
And, surprisingly, eating a high-carb dinner raised blood sugar levels by an average of 10.4 units, while having your carbs first thing increased them by 15.9 units.
The University of Surrey team now plan to repeat the experiment larger study, but we’re definitely taking this as our cue to have a massive plate of pasta tonight!
