Dietician reveals the 3 benefits of eating dinner by 7 pm for Indians, warns against late night meals

Changing your dinner time can help you feel more refreshed the next day, and even support long-term health goals like better blood sugar control.

Late-night dinners have become increasingly common as busy schedules keep pushing mealtimes later. But the timing of your dinner is more important for your health than you might realise. From late-night binges with takeout to rushed post-work meals to hit the sack asap, when your dinnertime is too close to your bedtime, it silently damages your health. Gulnaaz Shaikh, chief dietitian at KIMS Hospitals, Thane, shared with HT Lifestyle how eating late can wreck your health, from digestion issues to elevated blood sugar.

Explaining the demerits of eating late and how a timely dinner is good for health, the dietician elaborated, “Early eating allows your body sufficient time to digest your meal while you sleep. Late eating, however, forces your body to perform two tasks at once, which are digesting food while attempting to rest. This can result in issues such as acidity, bloating, disturbed sleep, and weight gain, albeit in the long run.”

Dietician Gulnazz shared three benefits of eating dinner before 7 pm:

1. Improved digestion

• From a digestive standpoint, dinner before 7 PM gives the body time to wind down before it begins to shut down for the evening.
• You start the next day lighter and tend to feel better and more focused.

2. Better sugar control

• Our body's sensitivity to insulin, or how efficiently we metabolise sugar, is typically improved earlier in the day.
• Late-evening food intake retains glucose in your blood longer, which can raise the risk of insulin resistance, especially among those with diabetes or prediabetes.

Late-night takeaways don’t count as dinner as they are high in calories and worsen health. (Shutterstock)

3. Improved metabolic health

• Early food intake also falls in sync with our natural circadian rhythm.
• Our body is not intended to process food during sleep; it's built to repair and restore. By giving it that break, you’re helping it do just that.

Dinner doesn’t need a strict deadline, especially with how fast-paced work and life have become, but the dietitian shared one key rule to make your dinner timing healthier.

She noted,“Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone has to stick to a 7 PM deadline. But having dinner at least 2 to 3 hours before bedtime is a great start.”

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.