Intermittent fasting linked to a higher risk of heart disease death
Only eating within an 8-hour window is associated with a significantly higher risk of heart disease-related death compared with eating over 12 to 16 hours
By Clarissa Brincat
18 March 2024
Eating within an 8-hour window, commonly known as the 16:8 diet, is a popular form of fasting
CRISTINA PEDRAZZINI/Science Photo Library/Getty Images
Restricting your eating window to just 8 hours a day, a popular type of intermittent fasting, has been linked to a higher risk of dying from heart disease. But some scientists argue that people with pre-existing health conditions may unknowingly opt for intermittent fasting if their symptoms or treatments affect their appetite and the quality of our diet is probably more important than when we eat.
Time-restricted eating has previously been linked to improved blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels, but its long-term effects are unclear.
To learn more, Wenze Zhong at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and his colleagues studied around 20,000 adults, roughly evenly split between men and women, who participated in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Their average age was 49 and just under three-quarters of them were non-Hispanic white people.
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Every year from 2003 to 2018, the survey’s participants self-reported their dietary information. The researchers then matched this against the death records between 2003 to 2019 from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants were only included if they were aged 20 or older and had completed two diet questionnaires within their first year of the survey.
Over an average follow-up period of eight years, the team found that those who ate during an 8-hour daily window didn’t live longer than those with a more traditional eating schedule of 12 to 16 hours, despite intermittent fasting often being lauded for its longevity benefits.
