The worst late-night snacks for your health (and what to eat instead)
By now, we should all be aware that eating late is a terrible idea. Habitually sitting down for your evening meal shortly before bedtime can result in acid reflux, impaired sleep and weight gain. It plays havoc with your blood sugar levels, leading to chronic inflammation and other long-term health problems, with studies suggesting that consuming calories too close to bedtime increases your risk of metabolic syndrome. This is linked to high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high cholesterol and a range of serious illnesses, from Type 2 diabetes to cancer.
Armed with this knowledge, many people – especially those of us in midlife – endeavour to eat our evening meal at a decent hour. This is a positive step. There's just one problem: the rest of the evening then yawns ahead: long, peckish hours when the temptation to reach for a calorific top-up may prove hard to resist.
'Late-night snacking is a huge problem for a lot of people,' says Stephanie Moore, a clinical nutritionist, health coach and author of Eat Your Brain Happy. 'It's one of my biggest bugbears, and one of the first things I try to address with my clients.'
Moore recommends that if you usually go to bed at 11pm, you should have finished eating by 8pm. 'You need to leave a gap of at least three hours between your last calories and bedtime and that includes liquid calories,' she says. 'When people watch TV after dinner, that's often when snacking happens.'
Here's why.
Our brains can't clean themselves if the body is digesting food while we sleep
Whether it's popping a tube of Pringles while you're watching The White Lotus or polishing off a tub of ice cream as a 'nightcap', late-night food consumption will negatively affect your sleep. The same goes for drinking alcohol.
This is because we have a higher body temperature when we're digesting, which in turn inhibits good sleep. Normally, when we fall asleep, we go into light sleep, then quite rapidly into deep sleep, which is when our core cellular renewal and our brain cleaning processes happen. However, deep sleep only occurs when our body temperature is cool enough. Alcohol and food being processed stops this from happening.
In addition, when people eat very close to bedtime, they often eat rich foods with high fat content, foods that stay in the stomach for a long time. If we then lie down in bed, we haven't got the force of gravity to help the food pass through. 'There could also be pressure pushing acid and enzymes and even some food back up into the oesophagus,' she adds. 'So then you get acid reflux or heartburn or some kind of regurgitation, which will affect sleep and bring longer term health consequences. That can impair sleep throughout the night and make you wake up with what I call a 'food hangover'. Even with no alcohol involved, you wake up feeling groggy and headachy.'
Eating later makes you fatter
Eating late may also contribute to weight gain. Research presented at the 2020 European and International Conference on Obesity found that late-night eaters consume 40 per cent of their daily calories after 6pm. Not only that, but the type of foods eaten during that period tended to be higher in sugar and fat, and lower in protein and fibre.
The foods we eat while watching TV in the evening are often actively designed to be over-consumed. As our home viewing has become closer to a cinema experience, we've imported the snack culture of cinema.
'I dissuade people from eating in front of a screen at any time of the day, because when we're engrossed in a TV show, the unconscious filling of your mouth takes over. And it's usually picky foods that don't require any concentration. They bypass our signals of being hungry. Most of the time we're not even hungry to start with – we've just eaten dinner. So the potential to over-consume is huge.'
The nightly process of renewal also demands a lot of energy, which means that under normal circumstances, you would burn body fat at night. However, if we've eaten shortly before going to bed, that doesn't happen. Over time, the double whammy of eating high-calorie foods and not burning body fat is bound to make you put on weight.
Messing with your blood sugar causes angst in the small hours
Most classic snack foods are disruptive to our metabolism and cause insulin resistance, which can then lead to diabetes and weight gain. Whether it's savoury snacks or sweet treats, the refined carbohydrates and sugars will cause a huge blood sugar spike.
This often makes us feel tired – because it's followed by a blood sugar crash. Snack foods can therefore be quite soporific. However, that doesn't mean they'll help you sleep, because the blood sugar crash causes an adrenaline response as your body attempts to get its blood sugar back up to normal. 'So now you've got your adrenal glands engaged,' says Moore, 'which will wake you up and keep you awake, feeling restless and angsty, with your heart pounding. In short, eating those foods late in the evening sends your blood sugar on a crazy roller coaster ride that will ultimately leave you feeling exhausted in the morning.'
The worst late-night foods and what to eat instead
If you really can't resist an evening snack, certain foods should be avoided. Nutritionist Stephanie Moore offers some healthier alternatives…
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