Greater time interval between meals can boost health, study reveals
| Sep 8, 2018, 15:31 IST
If you're someone who eats multiple meals a day but throughout regular intervals, we have some good news for you. A new study has found that people who increase the duration between meals regardless of their calorie intake seem to be healthier than people who don't. “Increasing daily fasting times, without a reduction of calories and regardless of the type of diet consumed, resulted in overall improvements in health and survival in male mice,” said lead author Rafael de Cabo, from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Perhaps this extended daily fasting period enables repair and maintenance mechanisms that would be absent in a continuous exposure to food,” de Cabo added.
They conducted a study wherein three groups of mice were fed meals at different intervals of the day. While one group had access to food throughout the day, the second group was fed 30% less calories and the third were only fed once a day keeping the calorie intake in mind. “This study showed that mice who ate one meal per day, and thus had the longest fasting period, seemed to have a longer lifespan and better outcomes for common age-related liver disease and metabolic disorders,” said Richard J. Hodes, Director at the NIH. “These intriguing results in an animal model show that the interplay of total caloric intake and the length of feeding and fasting periods deserves a closer look,” he noted.
They conducted a study wherein three groups of mice were fed meals at different intervals of the day. While one group had access to food throughout the day, the second group was fed 30% less calories and the third were only fed once a day keeping the calorie intake in mind. “This study showed that mice who ate one meal per day, and thus had the longest fasting period, seemed to have a longer lifespan and better outcomes for common age-related liver disease and metabolic disorders,” said Richard J. Hodes, Director at the NIH. “These intriguing results in an animal model show that the interplay of total caloric intake and the length of feeding and fasting periods deserves a closer look,” he noted.