American Heart Association statment on meal timing and heart disease

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  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Keep in mind that heart health and waist size are different things. When people say "meal timing doesn't affect weight loss" that doesn't mean meal timing doesn't affect other things. It just means people here are focused on weight loss. Since the forum's name is "General diet and weight loss help" that makes sense. :wink:
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    I think you will find that athletes tend to pay much more attention to meal timing than what people who are just trying to lose weight do. The big difference is that athletes view food as fuel while people who are trying to lose weight tend to view food as a reward. Given that the body functions differently based on what fuel is available at various times, I think it is likely that subsequent research will show that meal timing plays a part in heart health.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I think the first paragraph (below) tells us how to interpret the article. That and the statement just above that says research is needed.

    Planning when to eat meals and snacks and not skipping breakfast, are patterns associated with healthier diets, which could reduce cardiovascular disease risk, according to a new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
    Quote
    "•Planning and timing meals and snacks, such as not skipping breakfast and allocating more calories earlier in the day, might help reduce cardiovascular disease risk.
    •Large studies tracking patients’ cardiovascular health over a long period are needed to show how meal timing and patterns impact disease risk."
    I didn't read past that.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I interpreted it as saying it is something they want to study to see if meal timing impacts people's food choices. Food choices and weight gain are what is impacting heart health.
    It doesn't seem like they are saying a person who eats a nutritious diet and maintains a healthy weight will see a huge risk to their heart health if they eat later in the day.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Lounmoun wrote: »
    I interpreted it as saying it is something they want to study to see if meal timing impacts people's food choices. Food choices and weight gain are what is impacting heart health.
    It doesn't seem like they are saying a person who eats a nutritious diet and maintains a healthy weight will see a huge risk to their heart health if they eat later in the day.

    Could be, but there is a number of people who are "skinny fat." I'm sure the AHA is interested in figuring out what leads to that. Lack of exercise may be one thing, but they may be looking for other possibilities as well.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,344 Member
    When it states there is "no evidence" in the article, then it's basically going to be how a person views it. Myself, unless there's actually evidence, I view it as correlation. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's not necessary to time one's meals to be successful. There are just too many successes I've personally witnessed that do not adhere to meal timing.

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  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited February 2017
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I don't know that it's the meal timing in and of itself...I'd think people who plan their meals and exhibit these other patterns are more likely to have other healthy habits as well...ie quality nutrition, regular exercise, etc.

    In other words, the AHA has difficulty distinguishing between correlation and causation.

    Here's one along the same lines which makes just as much sense: "We see a lot of fat people exercising. Therefore, exercise makes people fat."
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    AHA needs clickbait titles for advertising revenue? Going with potentially daft as this provided no concrete results. I also hate articles that say "could" and don't quantify.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,106 Member
    edited February 2017
    Is anyone actually reading the scientific statement, not just the press release about the scientific statement? circ.ahajournals.org/content/circulationaha/early/2017/01/30/CIR.0000000000000476.full.pdf

    Yeah, it's a kinda turgid multi-page pedantic-sounding document. But it's much meatier than the press release. (Big surprise, eh?)
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,378 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Is anyone actually reading the scientific statement, not just the press release about the scientific statement? circ.ahajournals.org/content/circulationaha/early/2017/01/30/CIR.0000000000000476.full.pdf

    Yeah, it's a kinda turgid multi-page pedantic-sounding document. But it's much meatier than the press release. (Big surprise, eh?)

    I started to read. Then started to skim. After running into extensive "associated with" statements, I realized that much of what is there is correlation studies. Yes, they can give some direction for further study, but to read the whole thing I will have to print it off. I probably will eventually. It looks like the basic take away is planned eating, whatever the pattern, is better than unplanned.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,106 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Is anyone actually reading the scientific statement, not just the press release about the scientific statement? circ.ahajournals.org/content/circulationaha/early/2017/01/30/CIR.0000000000000476.full.pdf

    Yeah, it's a kinda turgid multi-page pedantic-sounding document. But it's much meatier than the press release. (Big surprise, eh?)

    I started to read. Then started to skim. After running into extensive "associated with" statements, I realized that much of what is there is correlation studies. Yes, they can give some direction for further study, but to read the whole thing I will have to print it off. I probably will eventually. It looks like the basic take away is planned eating, whatever the pattern, is better than unplanned.

    Yes. And some small more tightly-controlled ones.

    I didn't see anything earth-shattering on a first read - it's basically a lit survey/summarization thing, not a new study, after all - but the criteria for studies' inclusion weren't idiotic, and there are some interesting bits.

    Mainly, my point was that a lot of the dismissive commentary in this thread about the statement and the AHA is not (IMO) based on the actual scientific statement, but the much lamer press release.

    As you saw in my previous post, I drew basically the same high-level conclusion as you did: Unsurprisingly, intentional eating is better than mindless grab'n'go. If I were IR, I might've focused more on those parts, though. If I still had a bad lipid profile, ditto.
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