The first time I heard about the importance of not eating after dinner came from that well-known nutrition doctor – Charles Barkely! Okay, just kidding about his nutrition expertise. Nevertheless, he did discover, through advice from an actual nutritionist, that late snacking was keeping him fat. I just posted a little semi-entertaining note on this topic today. Sir Charles has obviously failed to adhere to his own advice since he retired from professional basketball.

All the best,
Dr. D

The information that I post comes from research on human physiology, so some of your puzzlement can be solved by digging into basic textbooks. What scientists know about metabolism is independent of whether you are puzzled by it. Fat cells are coming under intense study because they are turning out to be very complicated factories for hormones of several kinds (e.g., leptin and estrogen). Thinking about stored fat as merely a source of calories is obsolete. Not too many books are available to explain this to the public. However, a book called “Eat Stop Eat” by Brad Pilon is a good start. “Mastering Leptin” by Byron Richards and Mary Guignon Richards is also a great introduction to our 24-hour metabolic cycle and how it relates to how we use what we eat and what we store.

All the best,
Dr. D

The fat in blood thing is also puzzling. Our stomach are usually quite capable of digesting food to such an extent that there isn’t any unprocessed substances going into our blood system. Fat from out dinner just traveling through our veins? Not quite. Fat settling to our stomach/thighs? That’s like saying that the protein in a steak will settle into our muscles and make us more…muscular. Illogical? Exactly. Triglycerides and neutral fats in our vessels and arteries are another thing, but not something solely related to our foods! There is a plethora of reasons why people have high levels of cholesterol and they don’t necessarily correspond to diet. Not to mention the fact that cholesterol isn’t even linked to being the sole cause of heart disease any more (it might not even be one of the main causes). All those statins and anti-cholesterol drugs, all that wasted money for nothing…well all that money for big pharma, not entirely nothing.

When the body craves a snack, a snack is good. A growling tummy does not care for diet rules and neither should we. Good nutrition is important but feeding a hungry body irrespective of time and rules – is the most natural thing one can do.