There Is No Harm In Occasional Binge-Eating, Claims New Study

There is no harm in over-eating if you do it occasionally. A new study claims that eating a large buffet meal or a thanksgiving dinner will not lead to any immediate negative consequences.

The experts at the University of Bath pointed out if an otherwise healthy individual overindulges occasionally, there aren’t any immediate negative consequences in terms of losing metabolic control.

The researchers compared the effects of normal eating with maximal eating and found that people’s metabolism is surprisingly good at coping with overindulgence. They defined normal eating as "eat until you are comfortably full" and maximal eating as "eat until you cannot manage another bite."

The study included healthy men in the age group 22 to 37 who were asked to eat as much pizza as possible, even after they felt "full." The researchers analyzed the immediate effects this had on their body after the study participants had consumed twice as much pizza when pushing beyond their usual limits.

The all-you-can-eat trial

The average calorie intake in the maximal eating trial was over 3000 kcal, roughly one and a half large-sized pizzas. However, some of the study participants could eat up to two and a half large-sized pizzas in one go, which is way beyond the standard recommended calorie intake for a whole day.

They found that the participants managed remarkably well to keep the number of nutrients in the bloodstream within the normal range, even when they had consumed twice the number of calories they usually did.

Here’s what the researchers found:

• Even after maximal eating, the participants' blood sugar levels didn’t get higher than what it was after a normal meal
• The amount of insulin was 50% higher than normal
• Blood lipids were only slightly higher despite having eaten over twice as much fat
• Over-eating changed the levels of the hormones released by the gut to stimulate insulin secretion and increase feelings of fullness

"We all know the long-term risks of over-indulgence with food when it comes to obesity, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but we know much less about some of the immediate effects 'all you can eat' places on the body. Our findings show that the body actually copes remarkably well when faced with a massive and sudden calorie excess. Healthy humans can eat twice as much as 'full' and deal effectively with this huge initial energy surplus," MedicalXpress quoted the study’s lead author Aaron Hengist.

The study also revealed that human beings are capable of eating twice as much food as is needed to make one feel full. And our bodies are well adapted to excessive delivery of dietary nutrients at one huge meal. But the main issue with overeating is that it adds more stored energy to our bodies in the form of fat, which in turn could culminate in obesity if you overeat regularly.