Doctors explained the danger of eating at different times for the heart

The habit of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner later on weekends than on weekdays may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. This mode is called a food jetlag: the body reacts to the shift of food as if it were flying through time zones. On October 5, Valeria Bonadykova, a cardiologist at the Scandinavian Health Center, and Yulia Krasnaya, a dietitian, gastroenterologist, internist, and eating behavior specialist, told Izvestia about the mechanisms behind this and how to reduce harm.

What is a power jetlag and how does it knock down the internal clock?

Krasnaya explained that a food jetlag is usually referred to as a shift in the time of meals relative to the usual routine, especially between workdays and weekends. It's like a social jetlag, but it's not about sleep time, it's about meal time.

Bonadykova added that the body has an internal clock — circadian rhythms. The main ones are in the brain and adjust to light, while the liver, pancreas, and adipose tissue have their own, and food adjusts them. If a person eats breakfast at seven all week and on Saturday at eleven, the internal organs receive a signal at an unusual time and diverge from the main clock.

This is most noticeable in sugar: in the evening and at night, insulin acts less strongly, so the same plate at ten in the evening gives a higher sugar rise than at six. Fats burn more slowly after a late dinner, and blood pressure decreases worse at night. Individually, the changes are small, but over the years they accelerate atherosclerosis.

Krasnaya stressed that the composition and overall diet are still at the top, but the regime affects the feeling of hunger: with long intervals, the next meal may be more calorific and contain more simple carbohydrates and fats.

In studies, the risk of cardiovascular disease with meal shifts has been identified in men, but not in women. The cardiologist explained this for several reasons: men face coronary artery disease and heart attacks earlier, before menopause, women's vessels are protected by estrogens, and fat in the abdominal area has a stronger effect on blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol. In addition, lifestyle, sleep, and alcohol differ.

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Among the common reasons are fashionable gastric reduction surgeries, mono—diets and taking medications to correct weight.

At the same time, Bonadykova would not conclude that women are indifferent to the regime: after menopause, the risk increases. Krasnaya noted that there are no separate rules of nutrition for weekends by gender — there is not enough evidence of the stability of the female biological clock.

What is the threat of a downed regime

Bonadykova noted that for people with cardiovascular diseases, a downed regime is more dangerous: with hypertension, coronary artery disease or after a heart attack, the safety margin is lower. Many medications are tied to the time of day or to food, and when breakfast moves to noon, it's easy to skip the morning pill. With diabetes, skipping breakfast can lead to a sharp drop in sugar, and a heavy late dinner can more easily cause angina.

Red reminded me that the body doesn't know what day of the week it is. According to the nutritionist, if a person wakes up later and has dinner not at 18:00, but at 20:00, but also three to four hours before bedtime, this is unlikely to be a problem, but a large dinner at one o'clock in the morning before going to bed is already a pronounced shift.

How to set up a regime on weekends and during shift work

The cardiologist believes that there is not necessarily a minute-to-minute difference: a difference of half an hour or an hour fits into ordinary life. You should be wary when the weekends are arranged in a completely different way. The easiest way is to fix the first and last meal: if you want to get enough sleep, shift the rise by an hour instead of three and do not postpone breakfast until lunch, and leave dinner in the same place as on weekdays.

Krasnaya recommends not copying the daily schedule to the minute, but maintaining the usual structure of the day.

For shift workers, Bonadykova advises leaving the main meal during the daytime, and making do with a minimum at night. The snack should be small and unsweetened: cottage cheese, egg, vegetables, nuts. Physical activity reduces blood pressure and helps keep weight off, and after a night shift, you need a dark room and enough rest.

Red adds: the goal is to minimize circadian misalignment. It is better to plan the main part of the meal for the active part of the day, and take one or two snacks during the night shift.

After one shifted weekend, the body returns to the rhythm in a few days, but if the rhythm gets off every Friday, half the week is spent on rebuilding. There is a cumulative effect, but it is useful to adjust the regime at any age.

What symptoms should alert you?

The cardiologist emphasized that the shift in meals does not manifest itself in any way — the signs that the heart and blood vessels are suffering should alert. This pressure is 140 over 90 and higher with repeated measurements, pressing pain behind the sternum when walking, which goes away at rest, shortness of breath with habitual exertion and swelling of the legs in the evening, heart failure and dizziness. Bonadykova said that with any of these signs, you need to see a doctor in the coming days.

A separate situation is chest pain that does not go away in 15-20 minutes, radiates to the arm, neck or jaw, accompanied by cold sweat or shortness of breath: here you need to immediately call an ambulance.

For those who have been living in a downed regime for years and do not complain, it is enough to check their blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar once a year. Bonadykova advises men after 40 and women after 50 to do this without skipping.