Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81400 Lemnos, Greece.
Department of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences, International Hellenic University, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Nutrients. 2024 Mar 1;16(5):722. doi: 10.3390/nu16050722.
The concept of time-restricted eating (TRE) or time-restricted feeding (TRF) promotes daily periods of feeding and fasting to determine whole-body physiology. Chronic misalignment of circadian rhythms or chrono-disruption is related to an increased risk of diverse metabolic disorders. The progression of non-communicable diseases seems to be affected by the timing of meals. As a result, intermittent fasting is a promising approach for their management. The aim of the present literature review is to examine and scrutinize the TRE protocols in the fields of prevention and management of metabolic disorders.
This is a thorough literature review of the reported associations among circadian rhythm, metabolic disorders, diabetes mellitus, obesity, TRE, TRF, dietary habits, circadian disruption, cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, and non-alcoholic fatty liver to find the already existing clinical studies from the last decade (2014-2024) in the most precise scientific online databases, using relevant specific keywords. Several inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to scrutinize only longitudinal, cross-sectional, descriptive, and prospective clinical human studies.
The currently available clinical findings remain scarce and suggest that chrononutrition behaviors such as TRE or TRF may promote several metabolic benefits, mainly in body weight control and fat loss. Improvements in glucose levels and lipid profiles are currently quite controversial since some clinical studies show little or no effect. As far as liver diseases are concerned, the efficacy of intermittent fasting seems to be stronger in the management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease due to body weight decline and fat loss.
Even if there has been a gradual increase in clinical studies in the last few years, providing promising perspectives, currently, there is no conclusive evidence for the role of chrononutrition in metabolic disorders. Future studies should be well-designed with longer duration and larger sample sizes. Moreover, it is important to examine the best timing of the eating window and its feasibility.
限时进食（TRE）或限时喂养（TRF）的概念提倡在一天中进行进食和禁食，以确定全身的生理机能。昼夜节律的慢性失调或生物钟紊乱与多种代谢紊乱的风险增加有关。非传染性疾病的进展似乎受到进餐时间的影响。因此，间歇性禁食是管理这些疾病的一种很有前途的方法。本综述的目的是研究和审查 TRE 方案在代谢紊乱的预防和管理领域的应用。
这是对昼夜节律、代谢紊乱、糖尿病、肥胖、TRE、TRF、饮食习惯、生物钟紊乱、心血管疾病、动脉粥样硬化和非酒精性脂肪肝之间关联的全面文献综述，旨在从过去十年（2014-2024 年）最精确的在线科学数据库中找到已经存在的临床研究，使用相关的特定关键词。应用了一些纳入和排除标准，仅审查了纵向、横断面、描述性和前瞻性的临床人类研究。
目前的临床研究结果仍然很少，表明像 TRE 或 TRF 这样的chrononutrition 行为可能会促进多种代谢益处，主要是在体重控制和脂肪减少方面。血糖水平和血脂谱的改善目前存在争议，因为一些临床研究显示效果很小或没有效果。就肝脏疾病而言，由于体重下降和脂肪减少，间歇性禁食在非酒精性脂肪肝的管理中似乎更有效。
尽管在过去几年中临床研究逐渐增加，提供了有希望的前景，但目前尚无确凿证据表明chrononutrition 在代谢紊乱中的作用。未来的研究应该设计得更好，持续时间更长，样本量更大。此外，检查最佳的进食窗口时间及其可行性也很重要。
