Healthy Eating Myth Busted: Re-Thinking The Carb Curfew

Ever heard of the Carb Curfew?

We thought it was healthy eating gospel.

The Carb Curfew has long been a popular way of trying to lose excess weight. The idea is to reduce calorie intake and avoid over-eating in the evenings by banning carbohydrates after 5pm.

It also encourages people to eat slightly more protein which, in theory, should help us to stay fuller for longer.

In practical terms, it means no jacket potato with your evening meal of chilli and saving the pasta dish for lunch instead.

Followers of the diet often report feeling less bloated and more energised. So what’s up?

New research suggests that if we really want to shift the pounds we should in fact be doing the exact opposite.

Researchers at the University of Jerusalem randomly assigned 78 police officers to either an experimental diet of 'carbohydrates at dinner' or a control weight loss diet which consisted of carbohydrates eaten throughout the day.

What time is it?!

The idea of the research came about from studies carried out on Muslims during Ramadan, which found that when they fast during the day and eat high-carbohydrate meals in the evening there was a favourable change in the amount of leptin (the satiety hormone) that their bodies produced.

Now,  researchers are saying that doing the absolute opposite to the carb curfew, eating fewer carbs during the day and more after 5pm, could be healthier, especially for people at risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease due to obesity.

The key? As always, is keeping a close eye on portion control.  

People keen on healthy eating are also advised to switch to eating high fibre, wholegrain carbohydrates instead of overly-refined breads, cereals and pastas which contain fewer nutrients and just as many calories.