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Will A Carb Snack After Dinner Make You Fat?
By Jenny Mathers
Have you heard the theory that carbs before bed make you store fat and that protein is the best snack to eat after dinner and before bed time ? If you're anything like me, you snack regularly at night and that snack just happens to be a carbohydrate. You could be forgiven for thinking that this might be a bad habit to get into if you want to burn body fat.
There have been many recommendations that a good after dinner snack should be something like cottage cheese (a source of protein). Reasons for these recommendations are that protein can increase metabolism and it provides the body with a slow-release source of amino acids.
Foods high in protein have been a popular choice because the digestion of protein causes the body to burn more calories than do carbs or fats. This has the effect of marginally increasing the rate of metabolism.
Protein also provides the body with the essential biological building blocks known as amino acids which help to maintain muscle. Because amino acids can't be stored, having a constant supply of these is essential. So some recommend eating protein at the end of the day, to ensure that your body won't be without the amino acids it needs during the 8 - 10 hours sleep.
So protein is a good after dinner snack, but is this the whole story ?
What would happen if you ate carbs for your late night snack ? What about eating both carbohydrates AND protein ?
Dieters and athletes alike worry that they will gain weight if they eat carbs close to going to bed. Essentially this is not true. Weight gain does not result if you habitually eat carbohydrates after the evening meal and before you go to bed.
What The Research says:
Research indicates that carbohydrates at bed time play a role in helping to lose and maintain weight.
Researchers administering this study split participants into two groups, one eating a ready-to- eat cereal with skim milk, and the other not eating anything before bed time over a four week period. The group who ate the ready-to-eat cereal before bed actually lost more weight than those who did not eat a bed time snack. One explanation may be that carbohydrates are necessary for your body to process and break down fat. So cutting carbohydrate intake when you want to burn fat might not be the best way to go.
Another explanation, may be that those who ate the cereal just ended up consuming less calories. Researchers found that participants, in both groups consumed less calories, but those who ate the before bed time snack had the greatest decline in energy intake overall. [1] So eating carbs before bed will help you to lose weight, not gain weight.
Interestingly though, the group who ate the before bed-time snacks in the above study did not just consume carbohydrates, they also consumed protein not only from the skim milk, but also the protein contained in the cereal itself.
Expert Opinions on the Right Before Bed Time Snack.
Many nutritionists and dietetic experts recommend that your bed time snack consists of both carbohydrates and protein. The American Dietetic Association [2] recommends eating sources of both carbs and protein together as a snack, giving examples such as crackers and low fat cheese, yogurt and fruit or cereal and milk.
In an Australian Institute of Sport sample high energy meal plan [3] for a young anonymous athlete, fruit smoothies with skim milk, fruit, ice-cream and skim milk powder was listed as the bed time snack. Their official site [4] also indicates that combining nutrients is the way to go.
So according to the experts, examples of the most beneficial bed-time snacks are:
* fruit and some plain low fat yogurt,
* a skim milk smoothie with fruit, or
* low fat cheese on crackers - my personal favorite.
When you combine both carbohydrates and protein it makes for a much more enjoyable and varied snack. This way you are not only ensuring that your body is getting the right fuel and nutrients for use of overnight, but also ensuring that you're not going to store fat.
References:
[1] Sandia M. Waller, MS, RD, Jillon S. Vander Wal, PhD, David M. Klurfeld, PhD, FACN, Michael I. McBurney, PhD, FACN, Susan Cho, PhD, Smita Bijlani, MD and Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, PhD, FACN Evening Ready-to-Eat Cereal Consumption Contributes to Weight Management Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 23, No. 4, 316-321 (2004). See the abstract at http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/4/316.
[2] American Dietetic Association Position on Late Night Snacking. View the page at http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/home_4246_ENU_HTML.htm
[3] Reported by Steve Dow at http://www.stevedow.com.au/Article/article.asp?id=225
[4] Australian Institute of Sport FAQ "I have been told to avoid carbohydrate after 2 pm because it will turn to fat. Is this true?". Viewable at http://www.ais.org.au/nutrition/qa.asp#24
About the Author
Copyright © 2006, Jenny Mathers
Jenny Mathers writes for http://www.savvy-fat-burning- food.com/sensible-nutrition , collecting the most up to date and reputable information about weight loss, nutrition and overall health. You can also subscribe anonymously to her Research and Article feed at http://www.savvy-fat-burning-food.com/fat-burning-food.xml .
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