The when of eating
Are you a midnight snacker? Do you find yourself at around 11pm gazing into the fridge looking for that morsel that will get you through the next half hour’s turgid Americo-personality-driven crime drama? Are perhaps a 24-hour eater who can don the chaff-bag at any hour? If you are then you may want to rethink your eating philosophy because according to a new study eating around the clock may not be good for the ageing of your heart.
The study was done on fruit flies and yes, research has established that fruit fly hearts can be a model for human hearts. The study involved two groups of fruit flies aged two weeks old (the average lifespan of a fruit fly is 60 days). One group was allowed to feed all day long while another group was only allowed to feed for 12 hours a day. Over three weeks the researchers recorded how much the flies were eating as well as testing them for sleep time, body weight, and heart function.
After three weeks the flies on the 12 hour eating program slept better, gained less weight, and had healthier hearts than the other group. In other experiments the researchers found that the hearts of the flies fed on a restricted time-frame behaved like those of much younger flies and they even questioned of they were testing the right flies. It seems that eating in a restricted manner slows ageing of the heart.
The experiment was repeated several times and the results were confirmed; a restricted eating pattern leads to better sleep, lower weight, and a healthier heart than an unrestricted eating pattern.
Additionally, the researchers found that the benefits did not only apply to young fruit flies but older fruit flies, well into their twilight days, They were also able to ascertain the genetic pathways by which restricted eating was benefitting the heart. Despite the similarities it is still not a direct leap from fruit flies to humans but the suggestion is strong that restricting your eating times is a good thing for your health and your heart.
We have always known that what you eat, you are; and now we know that when you eat, you are too.
