A balanced diet that provides us with the necessary nutrients is key to good health, but it seems that the times we choose to eat meals also influence the chances of developing diseases. Our lifestyle has contributed to eating habits that are not the most advisable and many people skip breakfast or eat dinner very late. Now, a new study published in Nature Communications reveals that this can have very negative consequences.
Researchers used data from 103,389 people who participated in the NutriNet-Santé study to study associations between food intake patterns and the odds of cardiovascular disease. 79% of the participants were women and had an average age of 42 years. The researchers took into account numerous factors that could influence the results, especially sociodemographic factors (age, sex, family situation…), nutritional quality of the diet, lifestyle and sleep cycle.
Better times to eat and prevent diseases
What these scientists have discovered is that eating the first meal of the day later, as occurs, for example, when skipping breakfast, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, with an increase in risk of 6% for each hour delay. For example, a person who eats their first meal at 9 in the morning is 6% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than someone who eats their first meal at 8 in the morning.
Delaying dinner is even more dangerous, as eating the last meal of the day after 9 p.m. was associated with a 28% increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, such as stroke, compared to eating dinner before 9 p.m. eight in the afternoon, especially in the case of women. In contrast, prolonging overnight fasting (the time between the last meal of the day and the first meal of the next day) is associated with a reduced risk of cerebrovascular disease, supporting the benefits of eating breakfast and early dinner.
In addition to light, the daily cycle of food intake alternating with periods of fasting synchronizes biological clocks and influences cardiometabolic functions such as blood pressure regulation.
These findings highlight the potential importance of meal times in reducing cardiovascular risk and, although new scientific studies need to be carried out to confirm them, they suggest that adopting the habit of eating the first and last meals of the day earlier and maintaining a longer overnight fasting period could help prevent cardiovascular diseases, which are currently the leading cause of death in the world according to the Global Burden of Disease study, with 18.6 million deaths annually in 2019, of which around of 7.9 are attributable to diet. This means that diet plays an important role in the development and progression of these pathologies.
The lifestyle of Western societies has given rise to specific eating habits, such as eating late dinners or skipping breakfast. In addition to light, the daily cycle of food intake (meals, snacks, etc.) alternating with periods of fasting synchronizes the biological clocks or circadian rhythms of the different organs of the body, and influences cardiometabolic functions such as the regulation of blood pressure. . For this reason, chrononutrition is becoming a new and relevant area to understand the relationship between the timing of food intake, circadian rhythms and health.
