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It’s a diet trend endorsed by everyone from Hollywood stars to the current British Prime Minister.
But new research suggests that intermittent fasting might actually harm long-term health.
Those who eat just eight hours a day have almost twice the risk of heart attacks and strokes later in life, a study has found.
Experts said it showed why people should be careful about adopting fad diets before their effects are fully known.
This study suggests that to receive the full benefits of fasting, a person may need to go without food for 72 hours and rely only on water.
Time-restricted eating, a type of intermittent fasting, involves limiting eating times to between four and 12 hours in a 24-hour period.
It has gained popularity in recent years with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Elon Musk and actress Jennifer Aniston suggesting it helps them stay fit.
Previous studies have linked time-restricted eating to improvements in several cardiometabolic health measures, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels.
Now, initial research involving 20,000 adults has found that those who followed a time-restricted diet were 91% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
The fad diet program did not reduce participants’ risks of death from any cause, according to findings presented this week at the American Heart Association’s Lifestyle Scientific Sessions 2024 conference.
Researchers looked at information on dietary habits from annual health surveys between 2003 and 2018 and compared it to data on deaths during the same period.
Many who follow a time-restricted diet follow a 16:8 eating schedule, in which they eat all of their food within an 8-hour window and fast for the remaining 16 hours each day.
They found that this was associated with a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than people eating during 12- and 16-hour windows.
Those with heart disease or cancer are particularly at risk, they noted.
Professor Victor Wenze Zhong, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China, said: “We were surprised to find that people who followed an 8-hour restricted eating schedule were more likely to die of cardiovascular disease.
“Even though this type of diet is popular because of its potential short-term benefits, our research clearly shows that, compared to a typical meal duration of 12 to 16 hours per day, a shorter meal duration is not not associated with longer life.” .’
The observational research did not take into account other possible contributing factors, such as participants’ weight and cholesterol, at the start of the study or during the eight-year follow-up period.
It relied on self-reported dietary information and other lifestyle factors, such as smoking and exercise levels, were not included in the analysis.
Commenting on the research, Keith Frayn, Emeritus Professor of Human Metabolism at the University of Oxford, said: “Time-restricted eating is popular as a way to reduce calorie intake, although proponents claim other benefits. such as “acceleration of metabolism”.
“This work is very important because it shows that we need long-term studies on the effects of this practice.”
“But this summary leaves many questions unanswered, and additional research will be needed.” ‘
Tom Sanders, emeritus professor of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, said that although popular, there is little evidence to show that fasting promotes weight loss or weight maintenance.
He added: ‘We know from previous evidence that it is probably better to spread food intake throughout the day – in small amounts but often – rather than consuming large meals over a shorter period .”
“This is because large increases in blood fat and glucose occur after large meals.”