Eat slowly in daylight hours to beat the bloat

When you eat could be as important as what you eat, according to a new study.

Eating within an eighthour window between 10am and 6pm could help you lose more weight than dining well into the evening, according to research in the Nutrition and Healthy Aging journal published this month.

Now nutritional therapist Jeannette Hyde, of London, the author of The Gut Makeover, says eating within a restricted time- frame could also be the secret to beating the bloat for good too.

She has shared 10 ways that will help get your gut in shape — and her main advice is to eat within daylight hours.

The new study investigated the effects of eating within an eight- hour time- frame between 10am and 6pm in obese adults.

It concluded that even without calorie counting, adults who ate in an eight- hour window lost more weight than those who ate across a 10 or 11hour period in the day.

The diet, known as timerestricted feeding, is advocated by Ms Hyde, who says the practice can also help reduce bloating. She recommends eating when it’s light outside and to fast for 12 to 14 hours during the night as it can help stop bloating, she says.

Ms Hyde says: “Try to eat during daylight hours. The digestive system is primed to work best during the day time, and slows down its digestive functions at night which can lead to digestive complaints. We have evolved to eat in daylight — it wasn’t until recently we had light at night to cook and eat at a time which isn’t our natural rhythm.”

Ms Hyde says: “Leave at least two and a half hours between finishing your last meal and going to sleep. For weight loss, the timing of your meals, can be even more important than what you eat. There really is no need to count calories if you practise time- restricted feeding. Having a fasting stretch of 12- 14 hours between dinner and breakfast can promote weight loss.”

Ms Hyde recommends drinking kefir and eating more fermented foods as they apparently can help plant “good” bacteria in your gut

Variety is the spice of life, and it’s also the secret to banishing bloating, according to Ms Hyde. Eating a wide range of foods that contain fibre to keep feeding the good bacteria in your stomach

Sugar is a no- no if you want a flat stomach as apparently it can lead to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut

Ms Hyde says: “If you do the above, but can’t pinpoint which particular foods are making you bloat, consider seeing a nutritional therapist and ask for a stool test to see if a parasite infection is present.