People who have a serotine chronotype, that is, who prefer to stay awake late and are more active in the second part of the day, have worse eating habits than people with morning chronotype, that is, who wake up early in the morning, are more active in the first part of the day and go to bed early. This is what emerges from the research on a sample of overweight people, released on the occasion of the national congress of the Italian Society of Human Nutrition underway in Florence The study, carried out by Sofia Lotti and her research group at the University of Florence, investigated the role of chronotype on body composition, eating habits and cardiometabolic risk parameters on a sample of 51 overweight and obese subjects, recruited at the clinical nutrition unit of the Aou Careggi of Florence from March to April 2023, composed of 71% women and 29% men, average age of 50.3 ± 13.5 years. It turned out that 26% of the participants had a Serotino chronotype, 74% in the morning.
The analysis of eating habits showed that subjects with chronotype serotino consumed significantly more daily calories than mornings and that the caloric distribution of meals changed according to circadian preference, with serotini consuming significantly more calories at lunch and dinner.
Serotini subjects also reported eating a diet significantly higher in carbohydrates and fats, due to higher consumption of sugary drinks, fast food and sweets. Analyzing the time of consumption of meals, it emerged that subjects with chronotype serotino tended to consume all meals later than in the morning. "In conclusion, although there were no significant differences in body composition between the different chronotypes, the results of the study associated the serotini subjects with worse eating habits both in terms of dietary quality, and in terms of meal timing, taking more total daily calories, fats and carbohydrates, and consuming meals at late times. In addition, serotini subjects reported lower blood levels of folic acid and vitamin B12."
