Study Ties Late-Night Eating Under Stress to 2.5-Fold Higher Bowel Problems
Updated
Updated · CNN · Jun 8
Study Ties Late-Night Eating Under Stress to 2.5-Fold Higher Bowel Problems
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Jun 8
Summary
More than 11,000 U.S. survey participants who ate over 25% of daily calories after 9 p.m. while under chronic stress were up to 2.5 times more likely to report constipation or diarrhea.
The signal appeared in the combination, not meal timing alone: late-night eating by itself was not linked to abnormal bowel habits, and a separate dataset of 4,100-plus people also tied stress plus nighttime eating to lower gut-microbiome diversity.
Researchers and outside experts cautioned the work was observational, presented only as a conference abstract, and lacked details such as food type, medical conditions and medication use, so it cannot show cause and effect.
Even so, gastroenterologists said the findings support existing advice to avoid eating for 3 to 4 hours before bed; if eating late is unavoidable, keep portions small and skip heavy, greasy foods.