Morning vs. Evening Exercise: New Research

Does it matter when you exercise?

It’s always great when we can work smarter and not harder to reach the same goal, right?

When it comes to exercise, we know that physical activity reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but here’s a new study that looks at whether it matters what time of day we exercise.

After looking at data from 93,000+ healthy adults (from the UK Biobank), the results showed…

✅ Morning & afternoon physical activity were associated with a 9%-10% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

❌ Evening physical activity was not associated with a lower diabetes risk.

I’m not suggesting you ditch your evening walk, but this study suggests we get the most bang for our buck when we move our bodies earlier in the day.

What’s your exercise preference—early or late?

Reference

Tian C, Bürki C, Westerman KE, Patel CJ. Association between timing and consistency of physical activity and type 2 diabetes: a cohort study on participants of the UK Biobank [published online ahead of print, 2023 Sep 20]. Diabetologia. 2023. [link]

Food Additives & Gut Health

🤯🤯🤯 Shocker! 

Scientists have just discovered that chronic exposure to red food dye may lead to inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s and colitis. 

💡 To be clear—the study was conducted in mice. 

I know lots of people will be tempted to put on their blinders and say there’s no proof this is true in humans (fact), but…

This is the usual progression of science. 

We learn mechanisms in the lab and in animal studies and then only through longer and more involved studies figure out what really happens in living and breathing humans. 

Red food dye (Allura red or FD&C Red 40) is a common food additive in everything from breakfast cereal to beverages to chips. 

👉 It’s especially common in foods marketed to kids. 

This latest study (in Nature Communications 2022) found that chronic exposure to red food dye:

🔥 Disrupted gut function in mice, leading to changes consistent with colitis. 

☠️ Triggered changes in the gut that included increased production of serotonin and increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut). 

🚸 Primed mice for an increased risk of colitis especially when exposed early in life. 

So here’s the question I put to you:

Is it worth the risk?

Reference

Kwon YH, Banskota S, Wang H, et al. Chronic exposure to synthetic food colorant Allura Red AC promotes susceptibility to experimental colitis via intestinal serotonin in mice. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):7617. [link]