Eating your daily calories within a consistent window of 8 to 10 hours is a powerful strategy to prevent and manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, according to a review from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.
Time-restricted eating is a type of intermittent fasting that limits your food intake to a certain number of hours each day. Intermittent fasting is a popular diet trend; people use it in an effort to lose weight and improve their health.
According to the review, time-restricted eating is an easy-to-follow and effective dietary strategy that requires less mental math than counting calories. It can improve sleep and a person’s quality of life as well as reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
For the paper, the researchers explore the science behind time-restricted eating, recent clinical studies and the scope for future research to better understand its health benefits.
Recent research has revealed that genes, hormones and metabolism rise and fall at different times of the 24-hour day. Aligning our daily habit of when we eat with the body’s internal clock can optimize health and reduce the risk or disease burden of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and liver disease.
“Eating at random times breaks the synchrony of our internal program and make us prone to diseases,” said one of the authors. "Intermittent fasting is a lifestyle that anyone can adopt. It can help eliminate health disparities and lets everyone live a healthy and fulfilling life."
The study received funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute on Aging, the National Cancer Institute, the Larry l. Hillblom Foundation, the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Source: Endocrine Reviews, September 22, 2021
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