晚餐吃得少，健康好处多？
Should Dinner Be the Smallest Meal of the Day?
ALICE CALLAHAN
Q: I’ve heard that it’s bad for dinner to be your biggest meal of the day. Is that true?
问：我听说把晚餐作为一天中最丰盛的一餐是不好的。这是真的吗？
The maxim has been around for decades: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.” It’s not bad advice, experts say. It’s also the opposite of how most people in the United States eat, with dinner often being the largest meal of the day.
有句格言流传了几十年：“早餐吃得像国王，午餐吃得像王子，晚餐吃得像乞丐。”专家说，这是个不错的建议。但与大多数美国人的饮食方式相反，对于美国人来说，晚餐通常是一天中最丰盛的一餐。
Marta Garaulet, a professor of physiology at the University of Murcia in Spain, spends several months a year in the United States. She has noticed that many Americans are often so busy that they don’t have time to eat a substantial meal until the evening. It’s a striking contrast to eating habits in Spain (and other European countries), where lunch is typically the largest meal. A traditional dinner is light, consisting of something like vegetable or fish soup, a slice of bread with cheese, and a salad.
西班牙穆尔西亚大学的生理学教授玛尔塔·加劳莱特每年在美国生活几个月。她注意到，许多美国人经常很忙，直到晚上才有时间吃一顿丰盛大餐。这与西班牙乃至其他欧洲国家的饮食习惯形成鲜明对比，在西班牙，午餐通常是最丰盛的一餐。传统的晚餐是很清淡的，包括蔬菜或鱼汤，一片奶酪面包和沙拉。
Scientists are still untangling how meal size and timing might affect health. But they do know one thing: It’s probably best to avoid making dinner your largest meal, Dr. Garaulet said.
科学家们仍在研究饭量和进餐时间对健康的影响。但加劳莱特说，他们明确地知道一件事：最好不要把晚餐当成最丰盛的一餐。
Why Meal Size and Timing Matter
为什么餐量和进餐时间非常重要
For decades, nutrition researchers have focused on what — not when — people eat, so we don’t have many large or long-term studies on the influence of meal timing on health, said Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
哥伦比亚大学梅尔曼公共卫生学院的流行病学助理教授努尔·马卡雷姆说，几十年来，营养研究人员关注的是人们吃什么，而不是什么时候吃，因此，关于吃饭时间对健康影响的大型或长期研究并不多。
But, she said, the studies that do exist show some consistent links. People who consume a greater percentage of calories in the evening tend to be at higher risk for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and higher levels of inflammation.
但是，她说，现有研究显示了一些一致的联系。晚上摄入较多卡路里的人罹患肥胖症、2型糖尿病、高血压和炎症的风险更高。
Your body’s internal clock, which regulates how your cells function, may be at least partly to blame, said Frank A.J.L. Scheer, the director of the medical chronobiology program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
波士顿布莱根妇女医院医学时间生物学项目主任弗兰克·A·J·L·舍尔说，体内调节细胞功能的生物钟可能至少是部分原因。
In the morning, he said, your body is primed to handle a big meal. It is ready to absorb nutrients and distribute them to your cells to fuel the day’s activities. But gradually, as the day wears on, the organs that help you metabolize nutrients, like your liver and pancreas, start to respond more sluggishly.
他说，早晨，你的身体已经做好准备，可以大吃一顿。它已经准备好吸收营养，并将它们分配给体内细胞，为一天的活动提供能量。但是，渐渐地，随着时间流逝，肝脏和胰腺等帮助你代谢营养物质的器官反应开始变慢。
Researchers see these effects most clearly in blood sugar levels. If you consume two identical meals, one in the morning and one in the evening, your blood sugar spike will be larger and will stay elevated for longer after the evening meal, Dr. Scheer said.
研究人员在血糖水平方面看到了最明显的影响。舍尔说，如果在早上和晚上各吃一顿内容完全相同的饭，血糖峰值会更高，晚餐后血糖保持在高水平的时间会更长。
And when your levels of melatonin — a hormone that signals it’s time to sleep — rise an hour or two before bedtime, that suppresses insulin secretion from the pancreas, Dr. Garaulet said, making it harder for your body to regulate your blood sugar.
当体内的褪黑素——一种提示你该睡觉的激素——在睡前一两个小时升高，就会抑制胰腺的胰岛素分泌，加劳莱特说，这会令身体调节血糖变得更加困难。
If your blood sugar is frequently elevated from large evening meals, Dr. Garaulet said, your risk of developing high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, obesity and Type 2 diabetes may rise.
加劳莱特说，如果血糖经常因为晚上大量进食而升高，那么罹患高血压、慢性炎症、肥胖和2型糖尿病的风险可能会增加。
Research also suggests that consuming large meals at night can increase the activity of certain metabolic pathways that lead to fat storage while you’re sleeping, Dr. Scheer said.
舍尔说，研究还表明，晚上吃得太多会增加某些代谢途径的活动，继而导致脂肪在睡眠中储存。
In fact, in a 2022 review of nine weight loss trials, researchers found that those who consumed the most calories at breakfast or lunch lost slightly more weight than those who consumed the most calories at dinner. They also had better insulin, glucose and LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol readings.
事实上，在2022年对九项减肥试验的一项回顾中，研究人员发现，在早餐或午餐中摄入最多卡路里的人，比在晚餐中摄入最多卡路里的人减掉的体重略多。他们的胰岛素、葡萄糖和低密度脂蛋白胆固醇（或者“坏胆固醇”）指标也更好。
In another recent study, researchers found that people were less hungry throughout the day when their largest meal was breakfast than when it was dinner, said Alexandra Johnstone, a professor of nutrition at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who led the study.
主持这项研究的苏格兰阿伯丁大学营养学教授亚历山德拉·约翰斯通说，在最近的另一项研究中，研究人员发现，如果人们以早餐为主餐，全天的饥饿感会比以晚餐为主餐少。
Advice From the Experts
专家的建议
Dinner doesn’t necessarily have to be your smallest meal of the day, Dr. Makarem said. But ideally it shouldn’t be the largest, and it’s best to avoid eating late into the evening. She suggested looking for small ways to consume more calories earlier in the day.
马卡雷姆说，晚餐不是一定要成为一天中餐量最少的一餐。但理想情况下，它不应该是餐量最多的，而且最好避免深夜进餐。她建议寻找一些小方法，在一天中较早的时间里摄入更多卡路里。
Start by prioritizing a nourishing breakfast, one that incorporates protein-rich and sating foods like Greek yogurt, eggs or beans, Dr. Johnstone said. People sometimes tell her that they’re not hungry in the morning, but that may be because they had a large dinner the night before, she said.
约翰斯通说，首先要优先考虑一顿营养丰富的早餐，包括富含蛋白质和令人产生饱腹感的食物，比如希腊酸奶、鸡蛋或豆类。她说，人们有时会告诉她，他们早上不饿，但这可能是因为他们前一天晚上吃了一顿丰盛的晚餐。
Also try to make time for a substantial lunch, Dr. Garaulet added. When dinner comes around, you’ll be less hungry and less likely to consume a bigger meal. And you may be less enticed by late-night snacks.
加劳莱特补充说，还要尽量抽出时间吃一顿丰盛的午餐。这样，当晚餐来临时，你就不会那么饥饿，也不太可能吃得太多。而且可能也就不会被夜宵所诱惑。
If you do find yourself ravenous at dinner or later in the evening, Dr. Makarem suggested steering clear of processed foods and those high in added sugars and sodium. Instead, prioritize lower calorie foods that will fill you up without spiking your blood sugar, like legumes, grilled fish, chicken breast, vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
如果你在晚餐或更晚的时候感觉很饿，马卡雷姆建议避开加工食品，以及钠与添加糖含量较高的食品。要优先选择低热量的食物，诸如豆类、烤鱼、鸡胸肉、蔬菜、水果和全谷物，它们既能产生饱腹感，又不会让血糖飙升。
Alice Callahan是《纽约时报》营养与健康新闻记者。她拥有加州大学戴维斯分校营养学博士学位。
翻译：晋其角