So I Was Wrong!
A number of weeks ago I got into a tiff with someone who was of the belief that “eating ANYTHING at midnight is not healthy”, which was written as a comment to an image posted by someone that featured healthy midnight snacks, some of which included low fat cottage cheese and eggs.
The young woman I was at loggerheads with was of the opinion that the body magically stops metabolizing calories the same way it has earlier in the day once the clock strikes a certain time and anything eaten past that time is automatically stored as fat.
That was news to me because I had yet to see that in the scientific literature, so I pressed her for the proof to support her claims. She refused to provide any, only suggesting that I “ask any nutritionist or doctor”. In other words, it was my job to do her job of finding the evidence to substantiate the claim she made. When something like that happens in an argument, folks, that’s a clear red flag that the person doesn’t have the hard proof and is operating on anecdotal, not empirical, data, which renders their argument moot.
And a truly moot argument hers was because research shows the opposite of what she contends, as there’s no issue with eating late at night from a metabolic standpoint. A calorie is a calorie at midnight the same way it’s a calorie at noon. The reason you may not want to eat so late has to do with digestion and possible discomfort, which is a matter of personal tolerance and thus throws out the need for a blanket rule against it.
So why am I telling you this?
Because I was wrong.
It seldom happens, but when it does I’m not afraid to own up to it.
Now, as I was getting ready to print out our exchange to eventually have it professionally framed so I can add it to my collection because I’m just that petty, I saw something on my phone that proved her right.
A new study hot off the presses flies in the face of accepted thinking that what leads to weight gain is eating beyond your daily calories, not what time of day you eat, as the study finds that eating before bed delays fat burning.
Sure, there were only six participants involved in the study and no one in their right mind would consider that a large enough sample size to extrapolate on the entire population. And sure, all of the participants were aged 50 years or above, making them individuals with already slowed down metabolisms. And sure, the six 50-plus year old participants also belong to a group at risk for metabolic conditions, something that makes the sample less representative of the population at large.
While all of that is true and I appreciate you trying to make excuses for me, I’m not afraid to admit when I’m wrong, as is clearly the case here!
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