Nighttime eating may contribute to obesity

By cramming all of your eating into a smaller number of hours, you might be able to reduce your risk of obesity and related diseases, suggests a new mouse study -- even if you continue to eat exactly the same amount of food that you were eating before.

When given the same quantity of high-fat food, mice in the study that ate throughout the day and night became fat and sick, while mice whose eating was restricted to a period of eight hours remained healthy.

Researchers suspect that a period of fasting may boost the efficiency of organs involved in metabolism, allowing the body to better regulate blood sugar, fat storage and other measures. Each organ might also have its own clock that is programmed to work best during the hours when eating fits in to our circadian rhythms. Eating outside those rhythms, on the other hand, could set the body up for trouble.

Read the full story here: http://news.discovery.com/human/snacking-obesity-meals-120517.html