[ad_1]
The results are certainly attention-grabbing. However, it is important to note that this was an observational study, so although time-restricted eating was not found to cause cardiovascular death, there is an association.
Dr. Christopher D. Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford University in California and a leading nutrition researcher who was not involved in the study, said there are additional caveats that cast doubt on the study’s findings. There is.
For example, Dr. Gardner wondered: What types of food did people in the study eat? The analysis has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, so key details are not yet available.
“I think the concept of time-restricted diets in general is problematic because it keeps the focus on when the food is being consumed rather than the quality of what is being consumed,” Gardner says. . “As a nutritionist, I’m more concerned with the quality of what people eat.”
Previous research has shown that time-restricted eating can improve heart health in the short term
Time-restricted eating involves burning calories only during a specific time period each day, usually between 4 and 12 hours.
People could follow a 16:8 schedule, fasting for 16 hours a day and ingesting all their calories in an 8-hour window (for example, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) there is.
New study followed 20,000 adults for a median of 8 years
The new study used information collected over years from nearly 20,000 U.S. adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2003 to 2018 (with a median follow-up period of 8 years, maximum 17 years).
Immediately after registering, participants completed two questionnaires asking them to recall what they had eaten in the past 24 hours. The researchers placed people into one of five categories depending on the length of their eating window, which ranged from less than 8 hours to 16 hours.
Scientists then returned with the subjects over the years to track their health.
After adjusting for a number of factors, including age, race, ethnicity, and medical history, the researchers came to the following conclusions:
- People who ate less than 8 hours a day had a 91 percent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (primarily heart disease and stroke) than those who ate between 12 and 16 hours a day.
- For people with pre-existing heart disease, eating for 8 to 10 hours a day was associated with a 66% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
- Time-restricted eating does not reduce the overall risk of death from any cause.
The study has limitations that may cast doubt on the findings.
Nutrition experts asked for comment on the new study, which points to limitations in the study setting that could cast doubt on the results.
“We believe this conclusion is greatly exaggerated, given that the researchers had only two days’ worth of dietary intake data over a 20-year period. For the remaining 7,300 days of the study, what did the participants eat?” “Was it true?” said Dr. Krista Varady, professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Although Dr. Varady was not involved in this study, she has conducted extensive research on intermittent fasting for weight loss and reducing metabolic disease in obese people.
Gardner also feels that categorizing people into mealtime groups based on just two days of data is problematic. “Although it’s better than one day, it’s still possible that many of the study participants were misclassified. It would have been better to spend a few days in the first year and obtain additional dietary data in subsequent years.” “Yes,” he says.
Dr. Zhong acknowledges that this is an important limitation of his study, but points out that the analysis excluded people who reported abnormal eating habits on either of the two days.
Factors such as stress levels and access to food can play a role
There are a number of factors that could have influenced the study participants’ risk of heart disease, Gardner said, which could be addressed once the full analysis is published.
“For example, what if people who eat in shorter time periods have less access to food, work more shifts, and experience more life stress than the 12- to 16-hour group? ” Gardner said. That means the findings on deaths from cardiovascular disease may be due to something other than a narrow diet.
Researchers agree: More research is needed on time-restricted eating
“Based solely on our study, it is premature to make specific recommendations for time-restricted eating,” Zhong says. Still, he says, the findings suggest caution should be taken in continuing this diet for years.
He believes that it is better to follow diets with proven health benefits, such as the DASH diet or the Mediterranean diet, than to follow a time-restricted diet. “Based on current evidence, focusing on what people eat appears to be more important than focusing on when they eat,” he says Zhong.
Gardner agrees. However, he believes that limiting eating time may help some people psychologically.
He said many people find it difficult to make healthy choices in the current U.S. food environment, where low-quality foods are cheap, highly available, highly palatable, and highly convenient. Point out that there is.
“From a behavioral psychology perspective, I believe that some people may benefit from time-restricted diets,” Gardner says.
[ad_2]
Source link