This Common Dinner Habit May Put Extra Strain on Your Heart After 60

 This Usual Dinner Routine Might Strain Your Heart More If You’re Over 60

Cardiologists explain why you should reconsider this practice.

Key Insights

• This prevalent dinner routine adversely affects heart wellness and disrupts the body’s natural clock.
• Cardiologists recommend consuming smaller, lower-sodium meals earlier in the evening to promote heart wellness.
• "Minor, manageable changes—like moving dinner up by one hour—can lead to significant long-term gains."

Focusing on cardiovascular wellness is vital at any stage of life, but it’s particularly essential if you’re 60 or older—even if heart issues don’t run in your lineage. The likelihood of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular disease rises with age.

Perhaps you've actively sought to protect your heart. You limit sugary beverages and alcohol, have reduced sodium and red meat intake, and have increased your physical activity. All of these behaviors can significantly mitigate your chances of developing cardiovascular disease and other heart-related issues.

However, according to the cardiologists we consulted, there’s one prevalent dinner routine many people overlook that is harmful to heart health. Continue reading to learn what behaviors cardiologists urge people to shun and alternative options to consider.

Plate with a burger.

The Dinner Routine to Avoid Over 60, Per Cardiologists

A widely practiced behavior that can adversely affect heart wellness is having dinner late at night, especially when it consists of a heavy meal.

Consuming a substantial meal late at night elevates post-meal glucose levels, which indicates blood sugar levels after eating. The experts note that dining late leads to increased triglycerides within the body. This, they warn, triggers sympathetic nervous system activity, disrupting the internal clock and associating, “All of these impacts with a heightened risk of cardiometabolic conditions.”

Regularly indulging in a large dinner late can be harmful to heart wellness. “Eating late at night maintains elevated blood pressure during sleep, a period when the heart should rest and recuperate. This additional stress, compounded with possible sleep disruptions due to heavy digestion, may gradually impair heart health,”

When the late-night meal is also high in sodium, the effects worsen. “Excessive salt consumption leads to fluid retention, raising blood pressure and forcing the heart to work harder. Repeated episodes of this can lead to long-term problems like hypertension and heart disease,”

Both cardiologists stress the importance of allowing the body adequate time to completely digest food before bedtime. “Making a conscious effort to enjoy smaller, lower-sodium dinners earlier in the evening can help shield the heart and enhance overall cardiovascular health,”

As he mentioned earlier, late eating can disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm, which can subsequently cause sleep disturbances. This insight is significant, as consistently insufficient sleep heightens the risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Consuming dinner at least two to three hours before bedtime bolsters heart health by granting the body time to digest and allowing blood pressure to decrease naturally during sleep,

What To Do Instead

There might be times when you cannot avoid a late dinner. Perhaps an 8:30 p.m. booking was your only option, or your work schedule means returning home close to bedtime. While having a late dinner occasionally won't significantly affect your health (it's the patterns that truly matter), if you regularly find yourself dining late, keeping it light and making the larger meals breakfast and lunch.

“I suggest eating like a horse in the morning, a puppy at lunch, and a bird at dinner,” he advises. It's a twist on the saying, "Eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner." This eating pattern allows you to secure all necessary nutrients throughout the day while minimizing the burden on your digestive system before sleep.

For dinner, both doctors suggest a plant-centric meal that’s low in sodium. “Eating earlier and a plant-centric diet enhances insulin sensitivity, lipid metabolism, and blood pressure control,