"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

The timing of meals may affect the chance of heart disease, study suggests

The timing of each day meals could influence the chance of heart problems and stroke, based on a big European study published in Nature communication.

Research also found that prolonged nighttime fasting is related to lower risk cerebrovascular diseases resembling stroke.

The study was led by researchers France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment; Spain's Barcelona Institute for Global Health; Insert; and that Sorbonne University Paris North.

The results “suggest the importance of daily eating time and rhythm in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease” INRAE said in a press release. “The timing of what we eat could influence our risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Cardiovascular disease is the number one reason behind death worldwide and lots of are related to weight-reduction plan. Modern Westerners often eat dinner late and skip breakfast.

“In addition to light, the daily cycle of food intake (meals, snacks, etc.), alternating with periods of fasting, synchronizes the peripheral clocks or circadian rhythms of the various organs of the body, thus influencing cardiometabolic functions such as the regulation of blood pressure,” says the press release from INRAE.

Scientists analyzed data from greater than 103,000 participants within the NutriNet-Santé cohort. A study was launched in France in 2009 and aimed to raised understand the connection between weight-reduction plan and health.

“Participants who ate later had higher alcohol consumption, more frequent binge drinking, reported later bedtimes, and were more likely to have greater variability in meal times throughout the week,” the researchers wrote.

Delaying the primary meal of the day was related to a 6% higher risk of heart problems per hour of delay. As for the last meal of the day, eating dinner after 9 p.m. was related to a 28% higher risk of cerebrovascular disease resembling stroke in comparison with eating before 8 p.m., particularly in women.

“Finally, a longer duration of nighttime fasting – the time between the last meal of the day and the first meal of the following day – is associated with a lower risk of cerebrovascular disease, supporting the idea of ​​eating the first and last meals. “earlier in the day,” INRAE ​​reported.