Why is Time restricted or intermittent feeding/fasting beneficial to health?
Today's society has been bombarded by different takes on diets and recipes. We are always on a quest to discover newer strategies to renew our health and live long and strong. Today we will discuss a hot topic in today’s health circles, and this is Time Restricted Feeding. This does fall under the intermittent fasting umbrella, but is a more realistic and practical approach.
Definition: TRF involves eating over a shorter period in the 24hr period. It involves eating over 4-8 hours and fasting 16-20 hours. As I have always emphasized, this is not for everyone and you must be in communication with your healthcare professional about the pitfalls involved, especially if the involved person is taking diabetic medications, hypertensive-lowering agents, and many other medications. This is for a healthy people who want to be proactive about their health.
Bad habits to avoid: Many people who are engaged in Time restricted feeding tend to drink caffeinated drinks that have no calories to help curb their hunger. This starts off OK but ends up in accelerated acid secretion caused by the caffeine and abdominal issues that are very difficult to control; therefore, from my personal experience treating patients, I would strongly advise to limit and avoid caffeinated drinks during the fasting period.
Your inbuilt clock: Everyone has an inbuilt circadian rhythm that follows an orderly pattern of hormone, enzyme, and chemical secretion to help regulate bodily functions. Disorderly eating and binging causes more damage to this internal clock than we can imagine. TRF is an attempt to recreate the way we were built to eat when we were hunter-gatherers. At that time in Man’s life, there was never a constant supply of food that he could munch on into the wee hours of the night. We are trying to incorporate Chrono-nutrition back into our lives in order to reset into our normal circadian rhythm.
Benefits: There are a wide array of scientific studies that have outlined the benefits of TRF, we will explore them as follows:
Weight regulation and general health: TRF, when incorporated along with physical activity, has been shown in studies to help regulate and decrease Fat mass, and positively affect glucose and lipid metabolism. It also helps with blood pressure control. Adiponectin is an adipokine which seems to help contribute to good metabolic control and weight regulation; it is also secreted during the fasting state. It helps promote energy expenditure and fat loss.
Glucose metabolism: TRF also helps decrease Insulin resistance, regulate glucose levels, and may help to increase insulin sensitivity.
Chronic disease prevention: Decrease in the energy intake during the fasting period helps regulate and decrease pro-growth agents like IGF (Insulin-like growth-factor) and other inflammatory markers that can otherwise help fuel worsening inflammation, obesity, and cancers.
Closing remarks: It is notable that TRF showed improvement in cardiometabolic profile when food was consumed early in the day and mid-afternoon, however it did not show improvement when people ate later, especially after the onset of melatonin. Melatonin is a chemical secreted by your body to help prepare you for sleep, studies show that it can start being secreted by 7 pm onwards and concomitant food consumption during this period worsens glucose control and metabolic parameters, so I would advise eating earlier than later.
Right here at Dr. Priya's kitchen, I try to keep you informed about your health. I would advise you to not take health decisions on your own, but to stay in active partnership with your physician.
I wish, as always, that you will keep your health in center focus and live long and strong!
