measure exactly the time they eat, according to scientists

Overweight is no longer an exclusive problem of adults or an isolated issue in childhood. Between improvised lunches and late dinners a serious problem is emerging. To follow the current inertia, a study Posted in The Lancet He has warned that Spain could be placed as the fourth country in the world with the highest prevalence of childhood obesity in 2050. And the answer is not only in what is eaten, but when.

Looking beyond the plate. For decades, the nutritional debate focused on calories, Fats, sugars and Tags. But a key question had been out of radar: does the time it is eaten? Here the discipline of the Chrononutrition. This discipline analyzes how food schedules can directly influence our health. More technically, it is about biological watches (adjusted by factors such as light, sleep, physical activity and food) are closely linked to metabolism through the so -called circadian rhythms.

Therefore, dinner late, that in Spain it is a usual tonic, it could be taking its toll. Not only does digestion hinder: it can also imbue metabolism, make insulin work worse and, over time, favor overweight, even if the dish seems healthy.

Under that premise. A group of researchers from the valuenut project, from the Complutense University of Madrid, It was proposed to respond to that theorybut focusing on the little ones. To do this, they gathered 880 schoolchildren between 8 and 13 years old, from five Spanish provinces: A Coruña, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Seville and Valencia. The goal was not just to know what children ate, but also what time they did.

The study focused on three concrete aspects: breakfast, dinner and the “food window”. This little known concept refers to the time between the first meal of the day and the last to know how daily intake is distributed. The criteria? They considered late breakfast that occurs after 8:53 am, and late dinner that is taken from 9:10 p.m. If the difference between the two exceeded 12 hours, there was talk of a prolonged food window.

The results. Unlike what They have suggested Some studies in adults, in this case there was no direct relationship between eating late or lengthening too much time between the first and last meal of the day, and neither was a greater risk of obesity in the children analyzed. However, the metabolism did give signals of change, such as the schoolchildren who had breakfast later presented lower levels of glucose and LDL cholesterol (the one known as “bad”), and higher in HDL (the “good”). A fact that revealed the thread that had to be thrown away.

There was the pattern. When the late dinners or very prolonged food windows were analyzed, a different pattern emerged: the quality of the diet got worse. Less planned meals, more improvised and with less nutritional value. On the other hand, it was also given that there were children who ate the days for more hours, that is, with a longer window. These showed unavailable values ​​at glucose and cholesterol level and indices to develop cardiovascular diseases in the future.

But there is more. And to this equation an additional factor was added: the dream. The study revealed that 60 % of these children also slept less hours, which could further enhance the negative effects on their metabolism. Less rest, more mismatch in food schedules and a lower quality diet: a silent, but potentially harmful cocktail.

Synchronizing times. In the light of the results, the researchers launch a clear message: it is not enough to eat well, you also have to eat on time. From the study itself has clarified that the recommendation is to shorten the daily window, that is, that all meals are concentrated in a period of less than 12 hours.

Of course, in the case of Spain, where late dinners are deeply rooted to culture, so the challenge is not less. However, if you want to stop childhood obesity, the “when” must occupy a place as relevant as the “what” and “how much”. The research also raises new lines of work: what role does the child’s chronotype play? What happens if this data is combined with sleep quality? What if it is also taught to better plan meals? Understanding how the internal clock works from childhood can be key to preventing this problem from growing with them.

Image | Pavel Danilyuk

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