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Journalism of Courage
We all know that a time-restricted eating allows a longer time for the body to heal and rest and, therefore, repair all organs, including the heart. Now a new study has actually quantified the percentage by which the timing of breakfast and meals affects our cardiovascular health. This study seems convincing as it was carried out on a sample of over 100,000 people, who were followed between 2009 and 2022.
Researchers found that eating a late first or last meal is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. It also appears that a longer night-time fasting duration is associated with a reduced risk of cerebrovascular disease such as stroke. Delaying the first meal of the day was associated with a six per cent increase in risk of cardiovascular disease per hour delay. Eating dinner after 9 pm was associated with a 28 per cent increase in the risk of cerebrovascular disease such as stroke, compared with eating before 8 pm, especially among women. The study was led by scientists from INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Inserm and the Université Sorbonne, Paris Nord.
Calling this an important study, Dr Vijay Natarajan, cardiac surgeon and Director of Surgical Services at Bharati Hospital, Pune, says, “A 13-hour gap between dinner and breakfast the next day is suggested, which also helps in reducing the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. Some communities believe in having their last meal by sunset between 5 and 6 pm for a longer body recovery time.”
Restricting eating and drinking to a certain time means the body doesn’t need to produce hormones on an overdrive. “This affects hormonal balance, disturbances of which can cause metabolic syndrome that manifests itself through obesity, high blood pressure, high blood triglycerides, low levels of HDL cholesterol and insulin resistance. All of these raise the risk of heart attack considerably,” he says. The ingested food gets broken down into their simplest forms like glucose (sugars), amino acids (that make up protein) or fatty acids (that make up fats) for absorption by the body. Glucose is the worst inflammatory agent and late meals mean high levels of it circulate as the body digests slower at night. Sugar erodes the endothelial or the inner lining of the arteries and veins in the heart. “An injured endothelium causes plaques and fat deposition, raising the risk of a heart attack,” says Dr Natarajan.
The easiest way to follow the circadian clock is to have breakfast a little before 8 am and dinner before 8 pm, he recommends. A 13-hour gap between dinner and breakfast repairs the body and ensures you do not skip breakfast too. Also sleep patterns matter. That’s because the body secretes lower levels of fat-burning hormones like adiponectin at night. Staying up means stimulating your hunger hormone ghrelin that makes you reach out to high calorie food. This increases the risk of prediabetes, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and ultimately cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke.
