‘Intermittent fasting may raise risk of heart disease death,' sensational headlines read.
Not so fast…
For starters, this so-called study was not a randomized controlled trial (RCT). It was an epidemiological study relying upon just two 24-hour dietary recall questionnaires collected between the years 2003 and 2018. (Psst…Intermittent fasting wasn't even a thing until 2016, BTW.)
While the investigators did in fact find higher rates of death in people who remembered eating most of their meals in an 8-hour feeding window compared to those who remembered eating their calories in a 12 to 16 hour window; where these people intentionally intermittent fasting for their health or just whimsically eating one meal a day?
My vote is the latter, here's why: the 414 people in so-called ‘8-hour time-restricted eating bucket' of the study smoked more, weighed more and had higher rates of pre-existing heart disease compared to individuals who reported eating in a 12 to 16 hour window.
Here's a science deep dive:
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 Research Cited
Association of 8-Hour Time-Restricted Eating with All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality
Time Stamps
0:00 Intro 0:03 Sensational headlines
0:57 Statistical details
1:30 Nutritional epidemiology
2:54 Study period was 2003 to 2018
3:22 Only 414 people in 8 hour feeding arm
4:30 Smoking
6:47 20% died, why?
8:41 AHA Conflicts of interest
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