A habit of eating after dinner or right before bed may harm liver health, raising the likelihood of steatosis and cirrhosis, infohub.kz reports.
According to SciTechDaily, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University analyzed data from nearly 200,000 people who took part in three large long-term studies. The authors compared participants' eating habits with rates of liver disease. They found that people who regularly snack at night develop liver problems 20–30% more often than those who avoid late meals.
The liver is closely tied to circadian rhythms — the body's internal biological clock, which regulates sleep and metabolism. When a person eats at night, during the time meant for rest, the body's ability to process nutrients efficiently declines. As a result, regular late-night snacking may disrupt metabolism and contribute to fat accumulation in liver tissue.
The researchers stress that the work was observational and does not yet prove a direct cause-and-effect link. The team is now recruiting participants for a new experiment to find out whether simply moving meals to an earlier time can improve the condition of people who already have liver disease.