Restricting meal intake in 10-hour window may boost health

Limiting daily food intake to a 10-hour window could help restore metabolic balance and reduce the risk of health problems, even when the body's internal biological clock is disrupted, according to a study led by Indian-origin researcher Satchidananda Panda.

The research, conducted on mice, found that restricting the animals' eating period to 10 hours helped prevent obesity and metabolic disorders despite the animals consuming the same number of calories as mice that had unrestricted access to food.

Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute, said modern lifestyles often stretch the daily eating period over 14 hours or more, beginning with an early morning drink and ending with a late-night snack.

He suggested that limiting food consumption to 10 hours and fasting during the remaining hours could support better health, regardless of disruptions to the body's biological clock.

The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, focused on the relationship between circadian rhythms, eating patterns and metabolism. Circadian clocks help the body coordinate various functions according to the daily cycle of activity and rest. During periods of eating, the body focuses on processing nutrients, while fasting provides time for repair and other restorative processes.

To examine this relationship, researchers disabled genes responsible for maintaining the biological clock in mice, including genes in the liver that play an important role in regulating metabolism.

The mice were then divided into groups and given a high-fat diet. One group had access to food throughout the day and night, while the other received the same number of calories but only during a 10-hour period.

The mice allowed to eat at any time became obese and developed metabolic problems. In contrast, those restricted to the 10-hour eating window remained leaner and healthier despite consuming the same amount of food and having disrupted biological clocks.

The researchers said the findings suggest that eating patterns may have an important influence on metabolic health and could partly offset the harmful effects of disrupted circadian rhythms.

Panda said the results also offered hope that lifestyle choices could influence the impact of genetic risks. However, since the study was conducted on mice, further research would be needed to establish whether the same benefits and mechanisms apply to humans.

The findings add to growing scientific interest in time-restricted eating, which focuses not only on what and how much people eat, but also on when they consume their food.