### How Speed and Timing of Eating Affect Health A growing body of evidence shows that it's not just what and how much you eat that influence your health. How fast and when you eat also play a role. Research indicates that these factors may affect the risk for gastrointestinal problems, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Because meal timing and speed of consumption are modifiable, they present new opportunities to change behavior to help prevent and perhaps address these conditions. #### Eating Too Fast Eating too quickly can cause short-term gastrointestinal effects like indigestion, gas, bloating, and nausea. Long-term, it can lead to more severe issues. It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to signal the brain that you're full. Eating too fast can result in overeating before you feel full, leading to excess body weight. Overeating can also cause food to remain in the stomach longer, exposing the stomach lining to gastric acids and increasing the risk of gastrointestinal diseases. A study in South Korea found that people who ate their meals in less than 5 minutes had a 1.7 times greater likelihood of developing gastritis compared to those who took 15 minutes or more. Faster eating was also linked to prolonged indigestion in young-adult female military cadets. The risk for metabolic changes and the eventual development of type 2 diabetes also appears to be linked to how quickly food is consumed. The good news is that slowing down the speed at which you eat can help you feel full before overeating. A 2019 study found that participants who ate a 600-calorie meal slowly felt fuller and consumed fewer calories. #### Ideal Time to Eat When you eat also matters. Research suggests that eating earlier in the day to align meals with the body's circadian rhythms offers health benefits. Having the largest meal in the morning or at lunch can protect against obesity, while having it at dinner can increase the risk of obesity and lead to a higher body mass index. Consuming the majority of calories earlier in the day may also have metabolic health benefits. Time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, can improve metabolic health depending on the time of day. #### Behavioral Interventions Patients who eat too quickly or at late hours may benefit from behavioral interventions. To determine if someone is a candidate for such interventions, healthcare providers often start with a simple conversation about their eating habits, including when and what they eat, and any social aspects of their meals.