Do you enjoy late night eating? Whether it’s out of habit or genuine hunger, you’ll want to rethink this in the name of liver health.
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University found that people who eat late have a higher risk of liver disease.
The study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, linked eating after dinner or bedtime to a 20% to 30% higher risk of liver disease.
The conditions included metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, better known as fatty liver disease, and cirrhosis, which involves severe scarring of the liver. Alcohol consumption is not required for the development of cirrhosis.
Robert Wilechansky, MD, the study’s lead author and an OHSU liver transplant specialist, says in the report that earlier research had suggested a connection, but long-term studies directly examining fatty liver disease were limited.
The researchers analyzed data from three large U.S. studies: the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
Participants had reported their eating schedules and other lifestyle habits.
Researchers grouped participants by when they usually ate and compared those patterns with reports of fatty liver disease and cirrhosis.
People who ate late at night showed the 20% to 30% greater risk than those who avoided late eating. This was an association, not proof of cause and effect. However, it’s nothing to ignore, either.
What is fatty liver disease?
You need not be obese to develop this. It occurs when fat builds up in the liver and can sometimes lead to inflammation and damage, with cirrhosis developing in more serious cases.
Most people with fatty liver disease do not progress to advanced scarring.
Only a small percentage of those with fatty liver disease develop cirrhosis.
Still, you may want to curb late night eating as a pre-emptive approach to avoiding liver problems — even if a causal relationship has not been established.
What might explain the findings?
One possible explanation is the circadian rhythm: the body’s 24-hour cycle that influences sleep, metabolism and other functions.
The liver follows these biological rhythms as it processes nutrients, manages blood sugar, and controls how energy is stored and used.
Eating while the body is preparing for sleep could disrupt some of those functions.
Working a nightshift becomes relevant here. A night work schedule often clashes with natural sleep-wake patterns.
In fact, night workers have a higher rate of obesity and heart disease.
The paper also mentions that research increasingly links the timing of daily habits with health.
Eating at night, when the body is geared towards sleep, can make food harder to metabolize efficiently.
Over time, that may contribute to obesity and diabetes, as well as poorer liver health.
Can eating earlier improve liver health?
The findings didn’t show that changing meal times will prevent liver disease.
The study was observational, so researchers compared existing habits and health outcomes rather than testing a change in eating schedules.
Participants also reported their habits, and the descriptions of meal timing were broad. Other factors may help explain the link.
Controlled studies will be needed to learn whether eating earlier can actually improve liver health.
