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Q: What is time restricted eating and how is it helpful?

Q: How is time restricted eating different from intermittent fasting?

Krishna:  Intermittent fasting is the one where the fasting periods that are longer than a normal overnight fast of 8–12 hours. “Time-restricted eating,” or “time-restricted feeding,” refers to when eating is limited to a certain number of hours each day like 8-10 hours. 

According to recent research (1), early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Blood Pressure, and Oxidative Stress Even without Weight Loss in Men with Prediabetes.

Restricting eating to an eight-hour window, when activity is highest, decreased the risk of development, growth and metastasis of breast cancer in mouse models, report researchers.

The findings, published in the January 25, 2021 edition of Nature Communications, show that time-restricted feeding—a form of intermittent fasting aligned with circadian rhythms—improved metabolic health and tumor circadian rhythms in mice with obesity-driven postmenopausal breast cancer.

Previous research has shown that obesity increases the risk of a variety of cancers by negatively affecting how the body reacts to insulin levels and changing circadian rhythms. Now researchers were able to increase insulin sensivity, reduce hyperinsulinemia, restore circadian rhythms and reduce tumour growth by simply modifying when and for how long mice had access to food.

Both obesity and menopause can disrupt circadian rhythms, which in turn can lead to the development of insulin resistance, predisposing individuals to chronic diseases like cancer.

Data indicates that elevated insulin levels in obese mice are driving the accelerated tumor growth. Artificially elevating insulin levels accelerated tumor growth, whereas reducing insulin levels could mimic the effect of the time-restricted feeding. The results suggest that the antitumor effect of time-restricted feeding is due to improving metabolic health and lowering the levels of insulin.

Time-restricted eating has a positive effect on metabolic health and does not trigger the hunger and irritability that is associated with long-term fasting or calorie restriction. Through its beneficial metabolic effects, time-restricted eating may also provide an inexpensive, easy to adopt, but effective strategy to prevent and inhibit breast cancer without requiring a change in diet or physical activity.

However, I must add various research results showed  different results for restricted eating and the health benefits haven't been  confirmed yet. Therefore, I cannot say for certain it is good for health. 

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine has examined the effects of time-restricted eating (a form of intermittent fasting where food consumption is limited to a particular time window in every 24 h) in people with overweight or obesity. This study found that time-restricted eating did not have a significant effect on weight loss or a range of metabolic parameters (2). This kind of time-restricted eating (12–8) does not work alone (in the absence of calorie restriction and/or other dietary changes) in patients with overweight or obesity, according to the authors of this study (3).

The abstract of  another study (4) says: TRE initiated early in the active phase shows pleiotropic metabolic benefits in animal models of diet-induced obesity and aging. Short-term TRE trials in humans have shown modest reductions in body weight and improved cardio-metabolic health in people who are overweight or obese, suggesting that TRE may be a promising therapeutic tool. However, these studies are limited in number, sample size, and study duration. The feasibility of implementing early TRE in the general population on a daily basis is unclear, and the effects of delaying TRE to increase the potential translatability and acceptability of this dietary approach are unknown. Large-scale, long-term trials are warranted to determine if TRE is a viable alternative to current practice dietary guidelines.

Nutrition science, diet-related claims are highly controversial and should be taken with A PINCH OF SLAT  in the absence of genuine evidence and high quality data.

Footnotes: 

1. Manasi Das et al. Time-restricted feeding normalizes hyperinsulinemia to inhibit breast cancer in obese postmenopausal mouse models, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20743-7

2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-020-00434-5

3. Lowe, D. A. et al. Effects of time-restricted eating on weight loss and other metabolic parameters in women and men with overweight and obesity. JAMA Int. Med. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.4153 (2020)

4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004220303461

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