Time-restricted eating, a dietary strategy to prevent metabolic disorders: Study

Germany: Time-restricted eating (TRE) is an easy-to-adapt dietary strategy for the prevention and therapy and therapy of lipid and glucose metabolic disturbances, according to a recent study in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology. The researchers say that the best way of the Time-restricted eating (TRE)  approach is to be used in combination with a healthy diet, adequate sleep quality and duration, and increased physical activity to support optimal health. 

Time-restricted eating (TRE)  is a dietary approach that limits the daily eating window and has become a quite popular topic in media nad research. The eating behavior of the modern society is characterised often by prolonged and erratic daily eating that increases the risk of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. Recent evidence has suggested Time-restricted eating (TRE)  to be associated with weight loss, improved cardiometabolic health, and overall well being but the data is controversial. 

Considering the above, Bettina Schuppelius, Institute of Nutritional Science, University of Potsdam, Nuthetal, Germany, and colleagues reviewed how Time-restricted eating (TRE) affects glucose and lipid metabolism based on clinical trials published until June 2021.

Many trial showed TRE intervention to be associated with lowered fasting and postprandial glucose levels in response to standard meal or oral glucose tolerance test, as well as mean 24-h glucose and glycemic excursions assessed using continuous glucose monitoring. Studies also demonstrated decrease in fasting insulin and improvement of insulin sensitivity. These changes were often accompanied by decreases of cholesterol  and triglyceride levels. 

On the other hand, some studies showed TRE had either dverse or no effects on glycemic and lipid traits, that could be due to the different study designs (i.e., fasting/eating duration, daytime of eating, changes of calorie intake, duration of intervention) and study subject cohorts (metabolic status, age, gender, chronotype, etc.).

To conclude, TRE represents an attractive and easy-to-adapt dietary strategy for the prevention and therapy of glucose and lipid metabolic disturbances. However, the researchers added that there is a need for carefully controlled future TRE studies to confirm these effects to understand the underlying mechanisms and assess the applicability of personalized interventions.

Reference:

The study titled, "Time Restricted Eating: A Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Metabolic Disturbances," is published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.

DOI: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.683140/full