Late-Night Overeating or Low-Quality Food Choices Late at Night Are Associated with Subclinical Vascular Damage in Patients at Increased Cardiovascular Risk.

Eirini D Basdeki,Antonios Argyris,Christiana Tsirimiagkou,Petros P Sfikakis,Kalliopi Karatzi,Konstantina Koumi,Stavri Chrysostomou,Athanase D Protogerou

doi:10.3390/nu14030470

Abstract

Late-night overeating (LNO) is associated with several cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Limited data exist regarding the association between late-night (LN) systematic food consumption, LNO, and LN poor food quality with subclinical vascular damage (SVD) which precedes the onset of CVD. This study aimed to investigate the above associations with SVD in a large sample of adults, free of established CVD, with one or more CVD risk factors. In total, 901 adults (45.2% males) underwent anthropometric, dietary (through two 24 h dietary recalls) and vascular assessment. LN systematic eating was defined as consumption of food after 19:00 h in both dietary recalls and LNO was defined as systematic consumption of >40% of daily total energy intake (dTEI) after 19:00 h. Systematic LN food consumption was inversely associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (−1.44 95% C.I. (−2.76, −0.12)) after adjusting for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, BMI and dTEI. LNO was positively associated with existence of carotid plaques (1.70 95% C.I. (1.07, 2.68)), while LN increased consumption of red meat, refined grains and wine and low consumption of whole wheat grains was positively associated with Aix (Augmentation Index) (0.84 95% C.I. (0.09, 1.59)), after adjusting for all the mentioned confounders. Systematic LN eating is associated with lower DBP while systematic LNO and consumption of poor-quality food late at night, is associated with SVD. Further research is needed to define more accurately the impact of LN eating habits on vascular health.

Highlights

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Late-night overeating is considered the consumption of a large amount of daily total energy intake late in the day and/or during the night
The aim of this study is to investigate this potential association in a large sample of adults with one or more cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors

Summary

Introduction

Late-night overeating is considered the consumption of a large amount of daily total energy intake (dTEI) late in the day and/or during the night. There is no standardized and widely acceptable definition for late-night overeating. Different approaches have been suggested in relevant studies, such as intake of >25% of dTEI between. 19:00 to 4:59 h or ≥33% at night, an occasion of eating in between sleep, consumption of dinner within two hours before bedtime, and intake of >35% of dTEI after 20:00 h [1,2,3,4]. Modern lifestyles induce late-night overeating, which has been associated with generally increased energy intake within the day and with low food quality [1,2,3,5]. There are many groups of people that follow (or are characterized by) this type of eating behavior either due to lifestyle, i.e., shift-workers, or in the presence of night eating syndrome (NES), or due to religious particularities (Muslims in the period of Ramadan) [1,2,6,7,8]

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