Time-restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting that some believe could bring metabolic benefits.
Animal studies on time-restricted eating that have demonstrated weight loss and lower blood glucose have proved difficult to reproduce in humans.
However, a recent small study has shown that time-restricted eating may have a positive effect on overweight older people with type 2 diabetes. Whether or not eating in a fixed time window each day has any metabolic benefits is a question researchers have been asking in recent years.
Referred to as time-restricted eating, which is a form of intermittent fasting, animal and human studies have shown significant benefits of this practice, including improved blood glucose and weight loss.
According to researchers, one group that could benefit from time-restricted eating is people with type 2 diabetes, as losing weight and reducing blood sugar could help reduce the risk of developing complications.
Now, a small study on 14 overweight and obese type 2 diabetes patients in the Netherlands has shown that a time-restricted eating window of 10 hours, both improved the amount of time spent in a healthy glycaemic range and decreased fasting glucose compared to a 14-hour eating window. The results of the study have been published in Diabetologia.
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How fasting may help diabetes Type 2 diabetes is a form of diabetes where the cells in the body become resistant to the hormone insulin, which normally helps to move glucose—a form of sugar—from the blood into the cells to provide them with energy. In people with type 2 diabetes, cells become less able to do so. As blood sugar levels rise, the body fails to adequately compensate for insulin activity.
This increase in blood sugar can lead to many complications, including cardiovascular disease and nerve damage if left untreated or not controlled. The number of cases of type 2 diabetes has almost quadrupled in less than 40 years and makes up around 95%Trusted Source of the total number of cases of diabetes worldwide, according to a recent World Health Organization report.
