Are British calories more fattening than Eurpean ones?

[ruby27]

In Britain there is a school of thought that eating after 20.00 is not a good thing, calories consumed later in the evening do not get burned off, so late night eating will make you fatter than if you consumed the same amount of calories before 10.00 in the morning (or that seems to be the rationale, all the diet books urge you to refrain from late evening eating). However our continental cousins, the Spanish especially, scoff late into the evening not having family meals until at least 20.00. So how come they do not (or its not reported) have the same obesity problems that we have. Are their calories different, some sort of chemical difference or is it some sort of cultural phenomena? This is a sort of nurture/nature question?

[naomi24]

Apart from the fact that Europeans, especially in warm countries, tend to go for a stroll in the evenings, rather than sit in front of the TV, perhaps it's because they cook from scratch, and usually sit down to lighter meals of salads, vegetables, fruit, fish and lean meat, whereas many here sit down with huge Indian or Chinese takeaways, burgers, kebabs, fish & chips, pizzas and processed, easy to cook packaged foods. The type of food and the amount of it we eat is the biggest factor in determining our weight.

[ludwig]

I was going to say maybe it's because they eat less crap the rest of the time, but Naomi's already said that more eloquently.

[4getmenot]

Eating late at night is just a myth didnt you know

[4getmenot]

Just depends what you eat really. Your body actually burns alot of calories while you sleep

[jno]

I have carried out extensive research on this and can reveal that European and UK calories are equally heavy. Therefore my problem must be that I don't have a Spanish body.

[ruby27]

jno - I hadn't thought of that explanation. But, now that you mention that, it seems so obvious.

[jimmy654]

Night eating is advised against for a variety of reasons. Many dieticians do consider it unhealthy because they beleive tha'ts when your metabolism goes into night mode. This is not a consensus accros the board. Night Eating can also be problematic if it's a regular habit.
http://digg.com/health/Night_Eating_Disorder

[jimmy654]

Sorry, this is a direct link
http://www.eatingdisordersonline.com/explain/n ighteating.php