Eat all your meals in an 8-hour window to improve your brain

Eating all your meals within an eight-hour window could be good for the brain.

Having your last meal four hours before you go to bed could be another factor in helping improve memory and planning, say researchers at Rutgers University.

They tried different meal plans with a group of 47 women, aged between 50 and 79, who were overweight or obese.  They were all told to reduce the amount they ate by around 500 calories, and half were also told to eat their meals within an eight to nine-hour window, while the rest consumed their meals over 12 hours.

Although the women lost an average of 15 lbs in the six months the trial lasted, those who ate their meals in the shorter time window performed significantly better on tests that measured spatial planning and problem solving.

The researchers aren’t sure why cognition improves when we eat our meals in a shorter time span, but they think it could be to do with circadian rhythms, inflammation, metabolic health, and the biological pathways that help the body sense and respond to nutrients.

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