Time-restricted eating, a common weight loss strategy often known as intermittent fasting, was associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular death.
In a study published by the American Heart Association (AHA), a group of 20,000 adults who followed a restricted eating schedule of eight hours a day were found to have a 91% higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to those who spread your meals over 12 to 16 hours.
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The results were presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention│Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Scientific Sessions last week in Chicago, although the study has not yet been peer-reviewed.
What is temporal food restriction?
There are several types of intermittent fasting – but they all follow the same concept of alternating between fasting and eating.
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With a time-restricted approach, the individual only eats during a certain window of time.
For example, with the 16/8 method, a person fasts for 16 hours and then can eat within an eight-hour window, between 10 am and 6 pm.
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Other versions involve fasting for a full 24-hour period once or twice a week – or just consuming limited calories on fasting days.
Previous studies have found that temporally restricting eating can improve key measures related to heart health, including blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels, the AHA noted in a press release.
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“Restricting daily eating time to a short period, such as eight hours a day, has gained popularity in recent years as a way to lose weight and improve heart health,” said study senior author Victor Wenze Zhong, PhD. , professor and chairman of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China, in the press release.
“However, the long-term effects of temporal dietary restriction, including the risk of death from any cause or cardiovascular disease, are unknown.”
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What are the details of the study?
Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China analyzed information from the annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 2003 to 2018.
They compared it to causes of death recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2003 and December 2019.
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People who consumed all of their daily food in a window of less than eight hours had the highest risk (91%) of cardiovascular death, followed by those who ate in a window of eight to 10 hours (a 66% risk).
The highest risk of heart-related deaths was also seen in those who had heart disease or cancer, the statement said.
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“Although this type of diet has been popular due to its potential short-term benefits, our research clearly shows that, compared to a typical eating time range of 12 to 16 hours per day, a shorter eating duration was not associated to a longer life,” Zhong said in the statement.
Researchers followed participants for an average of eight years, with some followed for up to 17 years.
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The average age of participants was 49 years old.
What are the limitations of the study?
Dr. Lou Vadlamani — a cardiologist and founder of VitalSolution, an Ohio company that provides cardiovascular and anesthesiology services to hospitals across the country — was not involved in the study but offered his insights into the results.
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“As with all studies, the devil is in the details,” he said. “While this study provides some fuel for discussion and encourages additional study, it is far from conclusive.”
Fasting habits were based on just two days of recorded eating habits, Vadlamani noted — and depended on participants’ recollections.
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“There was no documentation of what participants ate while they were not fasting or what their activity levels were,” he noted.
The timing of the fast – whether it was during the day or night – was also unclear.
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“To say conclusively with any confidence that fasting has a direct impact on heart attack rates would be an exaggeration,” said the cardiologist.
“It certainly raises a lot of questions and supports the need for a more comprehensive study since intermittent fasting has become so common.”
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Registered dietitian Lauren Harris-Pincus, author of “The Everything Easy Pre-Diabetes Cookbook,” cautioned that this research has not yet been fully published and peer-reviewed — meaning a full analysis of its results is “premature.”
“There appears to be an important shift between the short-term benefits of the time-restricted diet and the long-term risks.”
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She was also not involved in the study.
“While this may suggest a correlation between intermittent fasting and death from cardiovascular disease, it does not prove causation,” the New Jersey-based expert told Fox News Digital.
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“There appears to be an important distinction between the short-term benefits of time-restricted dieting and the long-term risks.”
She added: “The findings contradict the positive benefits of time-restricted eating in a body of previous research, plus the data was based on self-reported dietary records at a few points in time.”
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It is not known whether the participants continued the time-restricted eating during the study period, Harris-Pincus noted. And self-reported food intake can be affected by memory lapses or
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Tags: Intermittent fasting linked higher risk cardiac death reveals Chinese study
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