Health: early dinner vs. late, as in the mediterranean?

[emwiig]

Question:

I've always heard that eating dinner early is healthier (glycogen storage, hormonal synthesis, insulin and melatonin levels, etc.). And yet promoted with the same rigor is the Mediterranean diet which, ingredients aside and if you've ever been to Spain, usually entails eating dinner at ridiculously late hours.

Anybody wanna give a shot at reconciling this for me?

Thanks!

[ediblover]

Unless you're waking up in the middle of the night to eat, which means interrupting deep sleep, it doesn't matter when you eat. Even food itself, as long as you're getting enough calories and nutrients, isn't nearly as important as exercise in impacting your health.

For good health, eat a variety of foods, exercise to match what you eat, sleep well and avoid drugs. Unless you have a serious medical condition that demands it, don't worry about all the little stuff.

[Harters]

Spain aside, I dont find southern Europeans eat particularly late.

[chococat]

My guess is that a "healthy lifestyle" is more dependent on the quality of the food and total calorie intake/output and less on the time of consumption. I think fixating on the time of consumption is a misguided attempt at find a "magic bullet" for health (and weight loss). In the grand scheme of things (food quality, total calorie intake, exercise, genetics, environmental exposures), what time one eats their dinner is insignificant.