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A woman eating food. Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group
Reducing the risk of dementia may be possible with a shift in eating habits. The change in this case, though, is not about what a person eats as much as it is about when.
A small clinical test found that participants who limited the times they would eat to an eight or nine-hour window greatly improved their performance on spatial planning and problem-solving tests. They also appeared to make fewer mistakes on memory and learning tests, according to a release by the American Society for Nutrition.
What they’re saying:
“These outcomes suggest a better ability to remember information during everyday tasks and reducing mistakes related to memory, attention and problem-solving. Reductions in the eating window predicted greater improvements,” said Sue Shapses, a Rutgers University professor and the study’s principal investigator
By the numbers:
Forty-seven women who ranged in age from 50 to 79 years old and were considered overweight or obese participated in the study. All the participants agreed to cut 500 calories per day from their diet, while 26 of them would also only eat during a window of less than nine hours, usually between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The rest of the women typically ate over a time span that averaged approximately 12 hours.
At the six-month mark, all of the women had lost around 15 pounds each, on average. Unlike the cognitive gains recorded for the women who reduced the hours when they would eat, the ones in the control group saw no significant improvement, researchers said.
What they’re saying:
“Losing weight alone will ward off some of the aging-related cognitive decline, and these data suggest that there may be additional benefits if you stop eating 4 hours prior to going to sleep and reduce food intake to 8-9 hours per day, compared to the usual eating window of 12 hours per day,” Shapses added
Why you should care:
Researchers pointed out that Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are becoming more prevalent, particularly as the population continues to age. They added that those conditions are more common in women and those who are overweight or obese. They noted diet and other lifestyle factors have been shown to potentially play a role in dementia risk, but added that there has not been much research on whether altering these factors can help reduce the risk
What’s next:
Researchers acknowledged the small size of their study and said their findings would need to be tested on a larger number of participants. They also want to see if restricting when people eat may affect their circadian rhythm, nutrient-sensing pathways, inflammation, and metabolic health
Theiety for Nutrition. This story was reported from Orlando
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