What Is the Best Time to Eat to Reduce Diabetes Risk?

Recent research on meal timing and diabetes risk offers interesting findings. On July 23, 2024, Diabetes Care published a study examining how higher energy intake and glycemic load in the late morning affect the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D).

The Importance, Prevalence and Global Burden of Diabetes

Diabetes is a rapidly growing major public health concern worldwide. As of 2021, 537 million adults were living with diabetes globally, a figure expected by 2045 to reach 783 million. Diabetes not only reduces quality of life but can also cause serious complications such as cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, blindness and lower-limb amputations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it directly caused 1.5 million deaths worldwide in 2019. Its economic burden on healthcare systems is also substantial: total diabetes costs in the United States were estimated at 327 billion dollars in 2017. These figures highlight diabetes' global impact and the importance of prevention and management.

Study Design

In healthy people, glucose tolerance peaks in the morning and declines in the afternoon and evening. Researchers conducted a prospective cohort study involving 8868 Hispanic/Latino adults without diabetes from four United States communities during 2008-2011 (mean age 38.7 years; 51.5% women). The second clinical examination took place during 2014-2017.

Meal Timing and Categories

Meal timing was divided into five periods:

• Early morning (06:00-08:59)
• Late morning (09:00-11:59)
• Afternoon (12:00-17:59)
• Evening (18:00-23:59)
• Night (00:00-05:59)

Energy intake and glycemic load were assessed at baseline using two 24-hour dietary recalls. New diabetes cases were identified through annual follow-up calls or at the second clinical examination.

Findings

• Late Morning:

  • Each additional 100 kilocalories (kcal) consumed in the late morning reduces type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk by 6%.
  • Each additional 10 units of late-morning glycemic load reduces T2D risk by 7%.
  • These findings were independent of total energy intake, diet quality and other variables.

• Other Time Periods:

  • No such relationship with diabetes risk was found for energy intake and glycemic load during the early morning, afternoon, evening or night.

• Shifting Energy Intake:

  • Moving each 100 kcal of energy intake from the early morning, afternoon or evening to the late morning produces a 5% reduction in diabetes risk.
  • Similarly, shifting 10 energy-adjusted glycemic-load units from the early morning, afternoon or evening to the late morning produces a 7-9% reduction in diabetes risk.

These findings emphasize the importance of late-morning energy and glycemic-load intake in reducing diabetes risk.

“In conclusion, these findings show the long-term promise of eating in line with the natural daily rhythm of glucose tolerance for diabetes prevention,” the authors wrote.

Commentary

According to this study, eating breakfast later may help reduce diabetes risk. If you wish, you can count a late-morning breakfast as lunch, helping regulate energy intake and control glycemic load. By aligning eating with your body's natural daily glucose-tolerance rhythm, you may reduce your diabetes risk.