Eating meals late at night is putting millions of Britons at risk of heart attack
Experts recommend eating before 7pm to give the body time to wind down
TUCKING into late-night meals is putting millions of Britons in danger of suffering a heart attack, doctors have warned.
It's been revealed eating dinner within two hours of heading to bed can leave the body on 'high alert' - meaning blood pressure doesn't fall properly overnight, which in turn increases the risk of damaging the heart.
According to experts, adults should eat dinner before 7pm to give the body time to wind down and rest - and the consequences of eating late can be worse than having a diet high in salt.
The grave warning comes after Turkish cardiologists studied over 700 men and women with high blood pressure, and found eating dinner later had the most significant impact on blood pressure during the night.
In fact, those who ate dinner later were almost twice as likely to suffer from "non-dipper hypertension", where blood pressure fails to drop properly during the night.
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Blood pressure is supposed to fall by 10 per cent, but almost 25 per cent of those who ate a late dinner suffered non-dipper hypertension, compared with just 14.2 per cent of those who ate earlier.
And it's been revealed nodding off in front of the television could mean you're one of the one in four Brits who has hypertension, or high blood pressure.
The Daily Telegraph reported that along with its effects on blood pressure, late eating was found to encourage the production of stress hormones such as adrenaline, which can also negatively affect the body clock.
The study also found people who skipped breakfast were also less likely to experience the crucial fall in blood pressure - but this had less impact that chowing down late at night.
Dr Ebru Ozpelit, associate professor of cardiology at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, western Turkey, said modern life and environmental factors such as artificial lighting meant people are more likely to eat later in the day and develop"erratic" eating habits.
She told the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Rome: "We must define the ideal frequency and timing of meals because how we eat may be as important as what we eat."