Welcome to my blog where I will explore the intersection of nutrition and health – both physical and mental. I am fascinated by how this living organism we inhabit is impacted by all that we digest – and not just dietary, mind you (which is why I have enjoyed teaching Yoga and exploring various spiritual traditions). But for this blog I’ll be dealing mostly with nutrition. In my quest to explore all aspects of human nutrition, I am constantly reading research and listening to podcasts from the greatest minds dedicated to nutrition research. I’ll be sharing this with you and parsing the differing views around nutrition as the science is young and ever – evolving.
With science in general, it’s best to always acknowledge that the data is “based on what we know right now” because thankfully science is ongoing and ever-expanding. This acknowledgement allows for, and even expects, changes in our understanding as new data is discoverered and published.
So can I jump right in with a favorite topic?
Time-restricted feeding, a.k.a, fasting
Time-restricted feeding (some may call it fasting) means narrowing the window in which you eat. For instance, within a 24-hour period, it’s choosing 8 hours within that window to consume your calories.
Say you begin your first meal at 10 am. That would mean that you would need to finish your last meal by 6.
Just so you know, this gets easier to do over time. Some people start out with a 12-hour window. Then slowly taper to a 10 or 8-hour window.
If you are dealing with obesity or diabetes (and there’s even some research on the merits of fasting for cancer), you will want to shorten the feeding time period to 6 or 8 hours. But don’t start there. Start with 12 hours and slowly bring yourself down.
Please also be aware that many do better with a dietary feeding window that ends by 5 or 6 pm. This is especially true for those with diabetes and obesity.
There’s so much on this exciting topic so please see the links below on recent research on time-restricted eating. It is certainly exciting that we can greatly impact our health just by the timing of our meals.
- Research on intermittent fasting shows health benefits, NIH
- Is time-restricted eating effective for weight loss?, Medical News Today
- Daily fasting works for weight loss, finds report on 16:8 diet, Science Daily
- Intermittent fasting: Surprising update, Harvard Medical School
- Time-restricted Eating, foundmyfitness.com
Jessica Mollet, RDN, LDN 