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 “Eating large breakfasts and lunches may be more beneficial than the
usual snacking model,” said Dr. Hana Kahleova, the study’s lead
author from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in
Prague.
“However, further larger-scale, long-term studies are needed before
offering clear recommendations,” she told Reuters Health in an
email.
The analysis used data from a previous study that compared two
restricted-calorie diets in 54 people with type 2 diabetes. Each
study participant spent 12 weeks eating six small meals a day, and
then another 12 weeks eating a large breakfast and lunch, with no
dinner.
With both diets, people reported fewer depressive symptoms and
better quality of life compared to how they felt at the beginning of
the study, but the improvements in mood were significantly greater
when they ate larger meals twice a day.
Disinhibition, which is the tendency to overeat in certain
situations, improved more on the two-meal diet. People also reported
feeling less hungry when they ate just twice a day, researchers
reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
People who eat less frequently may feel fuller and more satisfied
when they do eat, rather than feeling hungry all day long from
eating small meals, said Kahleova, who added that people need to eat
30 to 40 grams of fiber per day to be successful.
“Eat a hearty breakfast: eat breakfast like a king, lunch as a
prince and dinner as a pauper,” she said. “If you feel hungry in the
evening you can have a vegetable salad.”
“I think it's fascinating research,” said Margaret Powers of the
International Diabetes Center at Park Nicollet in Minneapolis in a
telephone interview.
By looking at the effect of eating patterns on patients' depressive
symptoms, the new research is starting to take into account the “big
emotional component to eating,” said Powers, who wasn’t involved
with the new study but is president-elect of healthcare and
education for the American Diabetes Association.
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The most important thing for people with type 2 diabetes is to have
a plan in terms of when they eat and how they spread out their
intake of carbohydrates throughout the day, Powers said, adding that
the goal is to maintain steady blood sugar levels and a healthy
weight.
“There's no one right way or wrong way, but I think this says that
we do have to pay attention to this emotional side of eating,” she
said. “If somebody's eating two large meals a day and they want to
eat at other times and they can't and that's making them miserable,
that's not the right plan.”
Powers said she wants to see her patients eat a healthy balance and
variety of foods.
“One of the goals of nutrition therapy for diabetes is actually to
maintain the enjoyment of food,” she said. “Our goal is to help a
patient understand that his or herself so they can help find the
best self-management plan . . . Whatever the food plan is, it should
be a lifelong eating pattern.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1IGEPHN European Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, online April 1, 2015.
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