Are you a fan of midnight snacking? How about a little late night 'concocting?'
A recent study shows that there's a difference between the two. Research published in the International Journal Of Eating Disorders says that one in four people noshes on not just any snack, but a strange one in the middle of the night.
Researchers surveyed the eating habits of 507 people, finding that 25 percent of the participants admitted to eating peculiar late-night meals. The researchers differentiated these types of foods from ordinary snacks by defining concocting as "making strange food mixtures that you would be too ashamed or embarrassed to share with others." According to the criteria of this study if you're dipping mozzarella sticks in ketchup at 3 a.m., it's not concocting; however, whipping up sugar coated scrambled eggs in the middle of the night falls under the "concocting" category.
The takeaway? If you're craving odd snacks into the wee ours of the night, you are not alone! But if your late night delights are causing a problem -- weight gain, sleep disruption or more --it might be worth investigating with a doctor to make sure there isn't an underlying cause.
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