A diet focusing on fasting and eating early in the day might be crucial in lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.
Time-Restricted Fasting vs Reduced-Calorie Diet
Scientists from the University of Adelaide and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) compared a time-restricted, intermittent fasting diet with a reduced-calorie diet to determine which was more beneficial for individuals predisposed to type 2 diabetes.
“Following a time-restricted, intermittent fasting diet could lower the chances of developing type 2 diabetes,” said Professor Leonie Heilbronn from the University of Adelaide’s Adelaide Medical School, the senior author of the study.
“People who fasted for three days each week, eating only between 8am and 12pm on those days, exhibited greater glucose tolerance after six months than those on a daily, low-calorie diet.”
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Participants who followed the intermittent fasting regimen became more insulin-sensitive and experienced a more significant reduction in blood lipids compared to those on the low-calorie diet.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body’s cells become less responsive to insulin, and the body loses its ability to produce this hormone, responsible for regulating blood glucose.
Almost 60% of type 2 diabetes cases could potentially be delayed or even prevented with alterations to diet and lifestyle. Currently, almost 1.3 million Australians live with a condition, for which no cure exists.
Promising Findings
Over 200 participants from South Australia took part in this 18-month study, published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Participants on both the time-restricted, intermittent fasting diet and the low-calorie diet experienced comparable weight loss.
“This is the largest study of its kind worldwide to date and the first one designed to assess how the body processes and utilizes glucose after eating a meal, a better indicator of diabetes risk than a fasting test,” said first author Xiao Tong Teong, a Ph.D. student at the University of Adelaide.
Teong added, “The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence indicating that advice on meal timing and fasting extends the health benefits of a restricted-calorie diet, independent of weight loss.
These findings could influence clinical practice.”
The researchers suggested that more research is needed to determine if the same benefits are observed with a slightly longer eating window, making the diet more sustainable in the long term.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about high vitamin D levels linked to lower dementia risk in diabetes, and this eating habit could help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about unhealthy plant-based diets linked to metabolic syndrome, and results showing the Paleo diet plus exercise could boost heart health in people with diabetes
The study was published in Nature Medicine. Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
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