Is It Better For Your Gut To Eat A Big Breakfast Or A Big Dinner?

Experts tend toward consuming your larger meal at the beginning of the day. "Gastric emptying, which is how quickly food travels through the stomach, as well as absorption of nutrients, is thought to slow down in the evening1. This means that eating a large dinner might lead to suboptimal digestion and absorption of the meal," explains Nielsen.

The position of our bodies when we sleep can also cause problems. "Lying supine causes gastric acids to reverse back up to the esophagus," explains Allison Aaron, R.D., and founder of Nutrition Curator. "Not only is this acid reflux extremely uncomfortable, but if chronic, it can also be detrimental to the GI tract. Sometimes, it may require the reliance on medications that you could otherwise avoid by shifting away from consuming a large meal just before bed."

"Digestion is influenced by many factors, from your level of stress during mealtimes to how well you chew your food," says Nielsen. "So, if mornings are crazy for you, eating a big meal might lead to poor digestion." To remedy this, Nielsen suggests drinking a couple of large glasses of water when you first wake up, then having your coffee or tea as you prepare a big healthy breakfast that you can take with you to work. "That way, you can eat when you feel your gut get going again—or when you're calmer and more able to focus on eating," she says.

Will Cole, D.C. and author of The Inflammation Spectrum, has found different results with different patients. "Those with more sensitive or sluggish digestive issues could come into trouble eating too much right before bed as it can impact their digestion (and sleep) throughout the night," he says. "But for some people, eating in the evening can help improve sleep quality. It's the heart of functional medicine: bio-individuality."