Research Study Associates Shifting Mealtimes with Heart Risks

Feb, 2021 - By WMR

A new study led by the researchers of Columbia University Irving Medical Center have suggested that for a healthy life, not only healthy diet, a proper meal time is equally important. In this study researchers have investigated upon the impact of inconsistent mealtimes linked with heart health risk factors such as changes in the circumference of waist, body fat, blood sugar, and blood pressure.

In the study, researchers investigated upon 116 women with ages ranging from 20 to 64 and from different races and ethnic. These group of women were part of the AHA's Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network. Moreover, researchers used an electronic food diary to track what and when they ate, for a week. Later after one year, 99 of the women returned and repeated the process.

Researchers basically focused at the timing of these women's first and last eating event of the day, they also noted that how long they survived without food overnight; and what percentage of daily calories they consumed after 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Additionally, after the evaluation, researchers observed that for every 10% increase in discrepancy in calories after 5 p.m., there was increase of around three points in their systolic blood pressure and over two points in their diastolic blood pressure over the study's one-year follow-up period. Researchers also found notable change in HbA1c, a key blood sugar measurement used to diagnose diabetes. Similarly, results also exhibited a half-inch increase in waist size and a half-point gain in body mass index, when there was increase in calories intake after 8 p.m.

Makarem stated, “It's not necessarily that on the weekend our eating timing is worse. It's just that on weekdays, we're following a social clock, whereas on the weekend, we're following our natural biologic clock. In other words, what's natural for our bodies is constrained by the demands and schedules of modern life.”