With long commutes and hectic work days, it can be tricky to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour, but a new study suggests eating the meal after 7pm can increase your risk of a heart attack.
Scientists looked at more than 700 people with high blood pressure to see what difference their diet and eating times made to their condition. The researchers logged the types of food eaten, the amount of salt in the meals, whether breakfast was eaten and timing of evening meals.
Eating dinner later had the most significant impact on overnight blood pressure. And intriguingly, having dinner within two hours of bedtime was found to have more of an impact on blood pressure than having a high salt diet.
The results, which were revealed at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Rome, suggests that when people eat might be as important as what they eat. The researchers recommend eating a good breakfast and lunch, but making sure the last meal of the day is a lighter one that is eaten no later than 7pm.
One in four of us suffer from high blood pressure which is one of the main risk factors for heart disease. For about 40% of those with hypertension, blood pressure doesn't drop properly overnight which sharply increases the chance of heart attacks.
In this study, those who ate dinner late were almost twice as likely to suffer from 'non-dipper hypertension' when the pressure doesn't fall overnight.
Experts reckon that eating late can leave your body on 'high alert' which encourages the production of stress hormones such as adrenaline.
Dr Ebru Özpelit, associate professor of cardiology, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, who led the research said:
"We must define the ideal frequency and timing of meals because how we eat may be as important as what we eat. Eating breakfast is important, we should have a strong breakfast, we shouldn't skip lunch. We must have a small dinner and it mustn't be later than 7 o'clock in the evening."
She and her team hope the results will be confirmed by larger studies.
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said:
"It is normal for blood pressure to reduce overnight, even in people with hypertension. However, in some hypertensives their blood pressure remains elevated throughout the night putting them at potentially higher risk of future complications. This research suggests that eating a meal late at night may contribute to the failure of their blood pressure to reduce. This observation, which needs to be confirmed in further, carefully designed studies, suggests that eating early in the evening may help people to gain better control of their blood pressure."