We've all done it at least once, put on a movie and snack on chocolate or ice cream, while slumped under a blanket. A mania so pleasant that it is so difficult not to reoffend, let's face it! But a study from the University of California could call into question our snacking sessions in front of Netflix. Indeed, scientists have succeeded in demonstrating that snacking at irregular hours, especially late at night, has an impact on our cognitive functions. To achieve this, they fed one group of bats during the day and another at night. The conclusion is that the bats that ate during the day (i.e. against their habits) had problems of perception:when the researchers added a new object to the cage, the birds had a lot of trouble recognizing it.
The University of California is not the only one to have studied our eating behaviors. The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania also looked at the eating habits of 9 people (it's not huge, we admit it). For 8 weeks, they had to eat three meals and two snacks from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The other 8 weeks, the individuals had to do the same thing but from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The result confirms that eating late increases blood glucose and insulin levels, which in the long term can cause type 2 diabetes. In addition, eating or snacking late can affect our cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease. We will therefore have to think about limiting nibbling... yes, if it happens to us once in a while, it's not serious, but it's if we abuse it that it can be dangerous!
