Controlling your blood sugar is a vital part of lowering your risk for developing type 2 diabetes and a new study has found that restricted meal times may help. More specifically, the research determined that consuming meals within a 9-hour window—regardless of other dietary changes—may help manage blood sugar levels.
Controlling men’s blood sugar
Although previous studies on restricting meals to control blood sugar had been done on mice, researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Adelaide in Australia wanted to test the idea on humans.
They recruited 15 men between the ages of 30 and 70 who were all at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. All of the men had a minimum waist circumference of 102 centimeters.
The men were told to keep eating all their typical foods to ensure dietary changes wouldn’t account for changing the blood sugar levels.
“The men … limited their food intake to a 9-hour period per day,” explains Associate Professor Leonie Heilbronn. “Participants undertook time-restricted eating, either from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or later in the day, from midday to 9 p.m.”
After measuring each of the volunteer’s blood glucose levels daily for the week they participated in the study, the researchers found that the time-restricted eating helped improve glucose control. However, the team also admitted that they did see “a tiny amount of weight loss” in the study, which could also be a contributing factor to better blood sugar levels.
Why strict meal times may control blood sugar
The research team believes that the benefits may have occurred because it gave the participants’ bodies time to process the nutrient intake when the person is most active.
“Time-restricted eating regimes demonstrate that we can enjoy foods that are perceived to be ‘bad’ for us if we eat them at the right time of day, when our bodies are more biologically able to deal with the nutrient load,” says Heilbronn. “And perhaps more importantly, if we allow our bodies to have more time fasting each night.”
