Eating a healthier diet is one proven way to prevent type 2 diabetes—but so too could be changing the times when we eat.
Reducing the window of time when we eat could have as big an impact on our health as the food we eat. Having all our meals between 7am and 3pm, or between 12 noon and 8pm, could help reduce our weight and reduce our blood-sugar levels, which can lead to diabetes.
Now researchers from the University of Surrey in the UK are about to find out for sure. They have recruited a group of 51 volunteers, aged between 18 and 65, who will eat during one of those time windows, and will be measured against the rest of the group who will carry on eating at their usual times.
“Changing our mealtimes limits our energy intake to a set number of hours in the day, which leads to an extension of the daily fast that generally happens overnight,” said Jonathan Johnston, one of the researchers.
In both the revised eating windows, the fasting time—when there is no eating—is extended to around 16 hours each day.
(Source: Nutrition Bulletin, 2020; doi: 10.1111/nbu.12479)
