You would recall nearly everyone applies the rule of thumb when it comes to what’s healthy or what’s not.
For many years, low-carb diets have been in fashion – based on the belief that eating lots of carbohydrates, particularly in the form of sugary treats such as white bread, rice or pasta, is bad for your waist and for your blood-sugar control.
The reasoning is that if you eat lots of carbohydrates and sugars, particularly the sort without fibre that get quickly absorbed, they will rapidly push up your blood glucose (sugar) levels.
As well as concern about the amount of carbs we eat, people also worry about when they get eaten.
It’s widely believed, for example, that eating carbs in the evening is worse for you than having them for breakfast.
That’s because first thing in the morning your body is raring to go and should soon burn up the glucose released from the carbs. When you eat late at night your body is preparing to sleep, so the body should take longer to clear it.
That’s the theory. But is it really true?
According to a research conducted by the University of Surrey by Trust Me I’m a Doctor and Dr Adam Collins, healthy volunteers were engaged to see how well their bodies coped with eating most of their carbs in the morning, or in the evening.
All of the volunteers were asked to eat a fixed amount of carbs every day; things such as vegetables, bread and pasta.
For the first five days, they were asked to eat most of their carb allowance for breakfast, leaving only a small amount for dinner time.
Then they had five days of normal eating before switching to low-carb breakfasts and high-carb dinners for a final five days.
So what did the research find?
Well, there was a clear winner. And it wasn’t the one you were expecting.
Well, it could be that what matters is not so much when you eat your carbs but the length of the carbs-free “fasting” period that precedes your meal.
Summary of the finding is not to worry too much about what time of day you eat carbs, as long as you’re consistent and don’t overdo it.
