- Eating three relatively similar meals to meet your daily energy needs may be the best way to prevent cognitive decline, according to new research.
- Studies show that skipping breakfast is associated with poorer cognitive health.
- In this study, biasing energy intake to one or two meals was not associated with rapid cognitive decline, but similar to a balanced three-meal diet, there was a cognitive benefit. I also found out not.
Food is fuel. It provides us with the energy our bodies need to function and stay healthy.
Previous research has focused on how the quality of the energy (food) we consume affects our health, and experts have investigated.
However, few studies have investigated how the distribution of daily energy intake can affect long-term cognitive health and whether it influences the risk of developing dementia.
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To better understand the effects of energy intake and meal timing on cognition, a new study explores the potential effects of different meal schedules, or temporal patterns of energy intake (TPEI), on cognitive decline. Checking it up.
As a result, eating each of the three balanced diets was associated with better cognitive function compared to other less evenly distributed ways of consuming total energy intake (TEI). indicates that
“To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the few population-based studies investigating the association between TPEI and cognitive decline, but accumulating research has linked TPEI to health outcomes including:
This study shows that skipping breakfast reduces cognitive function and accelerates cognitive decline.
This research recently life metabolism.
The researchers drew their conclusions by analyzing data from the Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey from 1997-2006.
Its data included the dietary habits of 3,342 people in China, and up to four repeated entries were collected over a 10-year period in this study. Individual age he was over 55 years old and average age he was 62.2 years old.
The authors note that 61.2% lived in rural areas and 13.6% had a high school degree or higher.
People with severe cognitive decline were excluded from the study.
At the beginning of the study period, each participant underwent both a dietary assessment and a telephone-based cognitive test and was assessed for immediate and delayed word recall, backcounting, and agility in subtracting 7 from a provided number. rice field.
The Cognitive Score ranges from 0 to 27, with 27 representing the highest level of cognitive health.
Researchers categorized individual meal timings into six eating patterns.
- Evenly distributed: People balanced their energy intake with three roughly equivalent meals per day. They consumed 28.5% of their daily energy with breakfast, 36.3% with lunch, and 33.8% with dinner.
- Breakfast dominance: People ate three meals, but breakfast consumed the most energy at 49.5%.
- Lunch center: People ate three meals, but consumed the most energy at lunch with 64.3%.
- Dinner Center: People ate three meals, but consumed the most energy at dinner with 64.5%.
- Plenty of Snacks: People consumed 36.8% of TEI from snacks.
- Without breakfast: People ate little or no breakfast and consumed only 5.9% of the TEI.
A pattern of skipping breakfast was associated with 0.14 points of cognitive decline per year on cognitive tests compared with an evenly distributed pattern.
No similar decline was seen in other patterns.
Dr. Clifford Segil, a neurologist at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, said of the findings: medical news today as “attractive”.
“I think skipping meals is worse if you choose to skip meals at breakfast,” he said.
However, when the researchers varied the TPEI into four possible patterns (evenly distributed, breakfast dominant, lunch dominant, dinner dominant), all but the first pattern were associated with cognitive decline. .
However, none were associated with accelerated loss of function.
According to Dr. Segil, the study “confirms that we unintentionally eat too many calories, and if we assume we have too many, we can become obese. And I think most of this kind of research has been done on excess calories in general health.”
Still, he noted, the study is generally in line with other studies showing that “dividing and eating energy improves short-term cognitive function.”
“This confirms what we’ve heard about other medical conditions.”
Dr. Hoon-Ki Sung, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, explains: MNT:
“There are two types of body clocks (circadian rhythms): one in the brain (central clock or central circadian clock) and one in peripheral tissues such as fat, liver, intestines and retina (peripheral circadian clock). Central clocks are primarily regulated by light, whereas peripheral clocks are regulated by multiple factors, including central clocks and feeding.”
Dr. Sung suggests that circadian nutrition may refer to “the circadian rhythm diet or the circadian diet.”
This means he is “synchronizing his feeding rhythm with his internal clock,” he said. He pointed out that eating like this could involve three meals. [or] Energy intake during meal times. ”
The Western three-meal-a-day schedule arose out of the needs of employers and workers during the Industrial Revolution. Prior to that, two large meals a day were more common, based on domestic and agricultural work.
“Common sense would say that you should eat before the busiest time of your day,” Dr. Segil adds. “Some people are busy in the morning, so make sure you have plenty of breakfast. [is often] Especially recommended for school age children. ”
In any case, more research is needed on the long-term benefits of meal timing on cognitive health.
“Cognitive problems are multifactorial and our understanding is still very limited,” concluded Dr. Segil.
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