PORTLAND, Ore. — That bowl of chips in front of the television at midnight may be doing more harm than expanding your waistline. A large new study suggests eating late at night could raise the risk of serious liver disease.

Researchers led by Oregon Health & Science University found that people who reported eating after dinner or after going to bed had a 20% to 30% higher risk of all forms of liver disease compared with those who did not. The findings were published Friday in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

The study focused on two conditions: metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, in which fat builds up in the liver, and cirrhosis, a scarring of the liver that can lead to liver failure.

"A few studies have hinted at this idea, but this is among the first long-term analyses to explicitly draw the connection to fatty liver disease," said lead author Dr. Robert Wilechansky, a hepatologist at OHSU who specializes in liver transplantation.

Data from nearly 200,000 people

The researchers analyzed three large, long-running U.S. datasets: the Nurses' Health Study, the Nurses' Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together, the studies included almost 200,000 participants who reported their diet and lifestyle habits over time.

The team grouped participants by their eating behaviors and then looked for links to reported cases of fatty liver disease or cirrhosis.

Late-night eating was defined broadly as eating after dinner or after bedtime. The........

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