Late-night eating: OK if you have diabetes? (2024)

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Late-night eating: OK if you have diabetes? ›

If you have diabetes, late-night snacks aren't necessarily off-limits — but it's important to make healthy choices. Late-night snacks add extra calories, which can lead to weight gain.

When should people with diabetes stop eating? Try to avoid eating for 10 to 12 hours each night. For instance, if you eat breakfast every morning at 8:30 a.m., you should limit your evening meals and snacks to between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. every night.

The Diabetes Canada clinical practice guidelines recommend that people with diabetes should have a blood sugar level of 5 to 10 mmol/L two hours after eating. So, if your bedtime is 10:00 pm, you should eat supper a few hours before that time, to allow your blood sugar levels to lower adequately.

If you eat a late dinner and go to sleep a few hours later, your glucose may be okay before going to bed. However, since the insulin you took for dinner is still working in your body, your glucose could drop during the night.

Glucose tests measure the level of sugar, or glucose, in your blood. Before some glucose tests, you'll need to fast for at least 8 hours. Before others, you won't have to fast at all. If you don't need to fast, what you eat beforehand won't significantly affect your results.

Disrupting our internal clocks can lead to diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Scientists at Northwestern have uncovered the mechanism behind why late-night eating is linked to weight gain and diabetes.

If you take insulin or other diabetes medications, you may sometimes need to snack before bedtime to treat or prevent low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) during the night. If this happens frequently, talk to your doctor.

No single drink can lower your blood sugar. But drinks with little or no sugar are good replacements for sugary drinks like sodas, energy drinks, and flavored coffees. Also, research suggests that green tea, milk, and kefir may help you control your blood sugar in the longer term.

How should a person with diabetes start the day? Eat a big breakfast. Eating a large meal in the morning and smaller meals for lunch and dinner may promote weight loss, lower glucose levels, and decrease daily insulin dose in people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, according to a 2022 review.

Doctors suggest that a normal fasting blood sugar range is between 70–100 mg/dL (3.9–5.6 mmol/L). If your fasting blood sugar is consistently over 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L), your doctor will diagnose diabetes. You can reduce your risk of high fasting blood sugar by eating your dinner earlier the night before.

Why do diabetics wake up at 3am? ›

The cause of the dawn phenomenon isn't clear. Some researchers believe the overnight release of certain hormones that happens naturally increases insulin resistance. That causes blood sugar to rise. The hormones are called counter-regulatory hormones because they have an effect that opposes the effect of insulin.

Though bananas are higher in carbs and sugars than some foods, they also contain fiber and resistant starch that slows down the digestion and release of sugar into your bloodstream. These qualities make bananas a healthy, go-to snack for people with diabetes.

More bad news if you love the sweet-and-savory combo: Chocolate-covered peanuts and honey-roasted cashews are high in carbs and not the best choice when you have diabetes, Dobbins says. Instead, try dry-roasted or raw nuts, which are flavorful but still healthy.

Summary. Drinking water won't lower your blood sugar levels, but staying hydrated can help you manage them if you have diabetes. Regularly drinking enough water is healthy, and research has linked it to a reduced risk of high blood sugar and diabetes.

For most people with diabetes, mealtimes should space out through the day like this: Have breakfast within an hour and half of waking up. Eat a meal every 4 to 5 hours after that. Have a snack between meals if you get hungry.

Not eating may give you a headache. And if you fast for more than a day or so, your body may not get enough of the nutrients it needs without supplements. But the biggest danger of fasting if you have diabetes is that your blood sugar levels could go dangerously low (this is called hypoglycemia).

“For people with Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce insulin, therefore it's important to eat regular meals to regulate insulin dosage accordingly.” A good rule of thumb, Moyer says, is to eat within one hour of waking up. It is optimal for people with diabetes to eat carbohydrates that contains fiber.

Your blood sugar can fall if you wait too long to eat, such as if you're fasting. It can also happen about 4 hours after a meal. This is reactive hypoglycemia. Or you might have symptoms similar to hypoglycemia if you have postprandial syndrome.

Many healthcare providers believe that the best approach for people with type 2 diabetes is to eat more, smaller meals at regular intervals throughout the day. Typically experts recommend eating six times a day.