Eating meat and eating dinner too late can increase cardiovascular risk

I am busy with work now, and my family only has the opportunity to have a meal at home in the evening. What impact does this eating pattern have on the body?

Eating too much branched-chain amino acid (BCAA)-rich food in the evening may have a negative impact on a person's cardiovascular health, a recent study found.

Foods high in BCAAs include red meat, poultry, eggs, and nuts.

First, the researchers created a mouse model and provided the mice with food containing different BCAA contents at different times of the day for four weeks, and then monitored the mice's cardiac parameters.

Studies have found that consuming BCAAs at dinner time can cause the heart to grow dramatically, increasing the size of heart muscle cells by 75% within 4 hours. Not only that, consuming too much BCAA can also worsen heart disease.

Is it true? The mechanism needs to be confirmed, so the researchers used the protein synthesis inhibitor "rapamycin" to further verify this hypothesis. If the effect of BCAA can be blocked, it means that this pathway is involved. The results showed that BCAA can participate in the phosphorylation state of 5 mTOR signal transduction components, which further explains that the consumption of dietary BCAA will cause cardiac hypertrophy.

Further research found that eating a BCAA-rich diet in the evening not only induces cardiac hypertrophy, but also worsens cardiac remodeling, leading to a sharp decline in the heart's contractile function and ultimately causing heart failure.

This study has positive implications for human health and scientific diet, and can provide a reference for people with chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. They may need to eat more protein-rich foods for breakfast, eat dinner earlier, and eat less protein-rich foods.

This study was done on mice and cannot be directly applied to humans, but it is still important to be careful. If you have to, eat a late dinner and try to eat something light.

Branched chain amino acids selectively promote cardiac growth at the end of the awake period

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yjmcc.2021.04.005