If your kitchen stays open long after dinner, a new study gives you one more reason to think about closing it earlier. In data from nearly 200,000 American adults, people who regularly ate after dinner or after going to bed were more likely to be diagnosed with fatty liver disease and cirrhosis over the following years.
The research, led by hepatologist Robert Wilechansky at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), was published in October in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. It is an observational study, so it can show a link but not prove that late snacks cause liver damage. Still, it adds to a growing body of work suggesting that when you eat may matter alongside what you eat.
What the Researchers Did
The team pooled three long-running U.S. cohorts: the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together they included 199,155 people with a median age of 59, who filled in detailed questionnaires about diet and lifestyle every two to four years.
Participants were grouped by whether they reported eating between dinner and bedtime, or after going to bed. The researchers then compared those groups with later diagnoses of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, the newer name for what used to be called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) and cirrhosis, the severe scarring that can follow long-term liver damage. Median follow-up was about 16 years.
What They Found
OHSU summarized the result as a 20% to 30% higher rate of liver disease among late-night eaters. A ScienceAlert write-up of the paper gives the breakdown: about 36% higher risk of MASLD and 28% higher risk of cirrhosis. The link held after the researchers accounted for age, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity.
Co-author Andrew McHill, a circadian scientist at OHSU, said eating at night appears to make the body less efficient at processing food. That fits earlier lab work showing that our metabolism follows a daily rhythm, though this study did not measure that directly.
Why This Matters for U.S. Readers
Fatty liver disease is common and usually silent. Wilechansky estimates it affects as much as 30% of the U.S. population. According to Mayo Clinic, MASLD often causes no symptoms at all; when it does, they tend to be vague, like tiredness or discomfort in the upper right side of the abdomen. It is tied closely to excess weight around the waist, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol or triglycerides.
Most people with fatty liver never develop cirrhosis, and Wilechansky stressed that only a small fraction do. That’s worth keeping in mind with the numbers above. The study recorded 315 cases of cirrhosis among nearly 200,000 participants over roughly 16 years, or well under 1 in 500 people. A 28% relative increase on a small baseline risk is a real signal for researchers, but it is not a reason to panic about a bowl of cereal at 10 p.m.
The Catch
- Observational design. The study shows an association, not cause and effect. People who snack late may differ in other ways (stress, shift work, alcohol, overall diet) that the adjustments didn’t fully capture.
- Self-reported, broad timing. Eating times came from questionnaires, and “after dinner” is a wide window. The researchers didn’t record clock times or what people actually ate.
- No sleep data. Sleep timing and quality weren’t accounted for, and poor sleep is itself linked to metabolic problems.
- No direct liver measurements. Liver fat and blood sugar weren’t measured as part of this analysis.
- A specific population. The cohorts are made up of nurses and other health professionals, mostly middle-aged and older, so results may not apply equally to everyone.
OHSU is now recruiting for a follow-up clinical study that will track meal timing directly and test whether eating earlier improves outcomes in people who already have fatty liver disease. That kind of trial is what’s needed to know whether changing the clock actually helps.
Practical Steps if You Want to Act on It
Wilechansky’s own takeaway was modest: keeping your eating to the hours well before bedtime might be beneficial. If you want to try that, these low-risk habits are a reasonable place to start:
- Pick a “kitchen closed” time. Choose a cutoff a few hours before you usually go to bed and treat it like a default, not a rule you have to beat yourself up over.
- Make dinner more filling. Late hunger is often a sign the evening meal was small or rushed. Adding vegetables, beans, whole grains or protein can help it last.
- Watch the habit snacks. Much late eating happens in front of a screen. Notice whether you’re hungry or just used to having something in hand.
- Keep the bigger picture in view. Mayo Clinic’s prevention advice for MASLD centers on a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats, limiting alcohol and sugary drinks, staying active most days and working toward a healthy weight. Meal timing is, at most, one more lever.
- Ask about your liver. If you have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or extra weight around your middle, it’s reasonable to ask your doctor whether liver tests make sense for you.
If you work night shifts or have a medical condition that affects when you need to eat, talk to your doctor before changing your routine.
More on Contoh
- Olive Oil Before Carbs Blunted Blood Sugar Spikes in Mice. Here’s What That Means for Your Plate
- Falling Back on November 1: How to Protect Your Sleep When the Clocks Change
- Common Food Preservatives Linked to Higher Blood Pressure Risk in a Large Study
Sources
- ScienceDaily (OHSU): Eating late at night linked to up to 30% higher risk of liver disease
- News-Medical: Late-night snacking may affect liver health
- ScienceAlert: One common eating habit is linked to higher risk of 2 liver diseases
- Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology: Late-Night Eating Is Associated With MASLD and Cirrhosis (Wilechansky et al., 2026)
- Mayo Clinic: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)
This article is for general information, not medical advice.