Restricting eating to eight or fewer hours a day, a type of intermittent fasting, may raise the risk of dying prematurely from heart disease over the long term, a new study suggests.
An analysis of data from more than 20,000 adults revealed that over several years participants who consumed all food in eight hours or less a day were almost twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease compared to those who consumed food over the standard 12 to 16 hours a day, according to the report presented on Monday, March 18, at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago.
Time-restricted eating, aka intermittent fasting, has become increasingly popular, with mounting evidence from human and animal studies that associate the eating pattern with better health. Specifically, studies have associated intermittent fasting with weight loss and improved regulation of blood sugar along with decreased blood pressure, cholesterol, resting heart rate and inflammation.
There are a few different types of intermittent fasting with 16:8 — when you fast for 16 hours and eat over the course of eight — being one of the most popular. Another type is 5:2, when you eat only 500 calories two days a week and follow a normal diet the other days.
So what does the new study mean if you practice intermittent fasting or are interested in trying it out? Here’s what to know.
What did the study find?
To take a closer look at the long term health impacts of time-restricted eating, the researchers turned to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and linked it with information from the National Death Index.
The researchers focused on NHANES participants who were at least 20 years old at enrollment. Between 2003 and 2018, the 20,078 men and women twice filled out a questionnaire that asked about what food they consumed and when during the previous 24 hours. They were followed for a median of eight years. During the course of the study, there were 2,797 deaths…
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