Time your meals for better health

I’m a staunch believer in restricted eating time (TRE), curtailing the length of your eating window.

A new study into how the timing of meals affects metabolism backs this up. For the “Healthy Heroes” trial, 137 firefighters ate a Mediterranean diet, half ate their meals within a ten-hour window and the rest over 14 hours. After just 12 weeks the time-restricted group was healthier with lower levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol.

To be precise, TRE improved very-low-density lipoproteins (bad cholesterol) and quality of life. Plus TRE decreased HbA1c (a measure of blood sugar) and blood pressure in participants with cardiometabolic risk. The good news is the 10 hour eating window (TRE) had no adverse effects.

TRE is especially useful for shift workers on a 24 hours schedule.