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A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes

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A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutritional Policies and Education for Health Promotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 35151

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Alison M. Coates

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Guest Editor

Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Interests: meal timing; eating patterns; circadian rhythm; shift work; cardiovascular risk factors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maxine Bonham

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Guest Editor

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Monash University
Interests: nutrition interventions; dietary intake; meal timing; circadian rhythms

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jill Dorrian

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Guest Editor

School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
Interests: sleep; chronobiology, shiftwork, sleep in pregnancy, biostatistics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Rebecca Leech

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Guest Editor

Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University
Interests: eating patterns and eating behaviours; biostatistics; nutritional epidemiology; public health nutrition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Eating patterns describe the timing, frequency, regularity, and food or nutrient composition of eating occasions, including meals and snacks.

The misalignment of eating patterns with the body’s endogenous circadian rhythms has been shown to have detrimental effects on cardiometabolic health parameters, as well as changes to hormone production and the gut microbiome. Understanding how eating patterns interact with individuals’ circadian rhythms, physiology, and metabolism to influence health is critical for the development of dietary guidelines framed around the timing and composition of eating occasions.

Eating patterns are influenced by many factors, including work schedules (e.g., shift-work), and life events that disrupt 24-h behaviour rhythms (e.g., pregnancy, early parenthood, and menopause). Interestingly, research has begun to document the behavioural strategies that people use to manage health, performance and safety under such conditions.

This Special Issue of Nutrients, entitled “A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes” encourages the submission of original quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods manuscripts describing research conducted in humans that are based on this topic. Scientific reviews of the literature and manuscripts exploring novel assessments of capturing the timing of eating, meal composition at night, and distribution of energy intake are also welcome.

Dr. Alison M. Coates
Prof. Jill Dorrian
Dr. Rebecca Leech
Prof. Maxine Bonham
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

meal timing
eating patterns
circadian rhythm
shift work
cardiovascular risk factors

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 1028 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dietary Patterns of Nurses on Rotational Shifts Are Marked by Redistribution of Energy into the Nightshift

by Alan Flanagan, Elizabeth Lowson, Sara Arber, Bruce A. Griffin and Debra J. Skene

Nutrients 2020, 12(4), 1053; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu12041053 - 10 Apr 2020

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4546

Abstract

Nightshift work is associated with adverse health outcomes, which may be related to eating during the biological night, when circadian rhythms and food intake are misaligned. Nurses often undertake nightshift work, and we aimed to investigate patterns of energy distribution and dietary intake across 14 days in 20 UK National Health Service (NHS) nurses working rotational shifts. We hypothesised that the proportion of daily energy consumed during the nightshift would increase over consecutive nights. Primary and secondary outcome measures included intakes of energy and macronutrients. Our results show that nurses consumed the same total daily energy on nightshifts and non-nightshifts, but redistributed energy to the nightshift period in increasing proportions with a significant difference between Night 1 and 2 in the proportion of total daily energy consumed (26.0 ± 15.7% vs. 33.5 ± 20.2%, mean ± SD; p < 0.01). This finding indicates that, rather than increasing total energy intake, nurses redistribute energy consumed during nightshifts as a behavioural response to consecutive nightshifts. This finding informs our understanding of how the intake of energy during the biological night can influence adverse health outcomes of nightshift work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)

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13 pages, 597 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Meal Patterns and Changes in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Children: A Longitudinal Analysis

by Xianwen Shang, Yanping Li, Haiquan Xu, Qian Zhang, Ailing Liu, Songming Du and Guansheng Ma

Nutrients 2020, 12(3), 799; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu12030799 - 18 Mar 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2463

Abstract

We examined whether energy and macronutrient intake from different meals was associated with changes in cardiometabolic risk (CMR) factors in children. CMR score (CMRS) was computed by summing Z-scores of waist circumference, the average of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (multiplying by −1), and triglycerides. We included 5517 children aged 6–13 years from six major cities in China. Five meal patterns were identified according to energy intake: balanced, breakfast dominant, lunch dominant, dinner dominant, and snack dominant patterns. These patterns were not significantly associated with changes in CMR factors. Carbohydrate intake (% energy) at lunch was positively associated with the change in CMRS (beta coefficient (95% CI): (0.777 (0.509, 1.046) in quintile 5 versus quintile 1). A positive association between carbohydrate intake at dinner and change in CMRS was observed. High protein intake at both lunch and dinner was associated with a favorable change in CMRS. Moderate fat intake at lunch was associated with a lower increase in CMRS. Meal patterns driven by energy were not significantly associated with CMR factors; however, a low carbohydrate-high protein-moderate fat lunch and low carbohydrate-high protein dinner were associated with favorable changes in CMRS in children. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)

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11 pages, 636 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Elapsed Time between Dinner and the Midpoint of Sleep Is Associated with Adiposity in Young Women

by María Fernanda Zerón-Rugerio, Giovana Longo-Silva, Álvaro Hernáez, Ana Eugenia Ortega-Regules, Trinitat Cambras and Maria Izquierdo-Pulido

Nutrients 2020, 12(2), 410; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu12020410 - 05 Feb 2020

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4448

Abstract

Meal timing relative to sleep/wake schedules is relevant in the search for obesity risk factors. However, clock time does not accurately characterize the timing of food intake in the context of internal circadian timing. Therefore, we studied elapsed between dinner and the midpoint of sleep (TDM) as a practical approach to evaluate meal timing relative to internal timing, and its implications on obesity. To do so, adiposity, sleep, diet, physical activity, and TDM were measured in 133 women. The participants were grouped into four categories according to their sleep timing behavior (early-bed/early-rise; early-bed/late-rise; late-bed/early-rise; late-bed/late-rise). Differences among the categories were tested using ANOVA, while restricted cubic splines were calculated to study the association between TDM and adiposity. Our results show that, although participants had dinner at about the same time, those that had the shortest TDM (early-bed/early-rise group) were found to have significantly higher BMI and waist circumference values (2.3 kg/m² and 5.2 cm) than the other groups. In addition, a TDM of 6 h was associated with the lowest values of adiposity. The TDM could be a practical approach to personalizing meal timing based on individual sleep/wake schedules. Thus, according to our findings, dining 6 h before the midpoint of sleep is an important finding and could be vital for future nutritional recommendations and for obesity prevention and treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)

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15 pages, 1119 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Eating Behavior (Duration, Content, and Timing) Among Workers Living under Different Levels of Urbanization

by Natalia M. Tiuganji, Patricia Nehme, Elaine C. Marqueze, Cheryl M. Isherwood, Andressa J. Martins, Suleima Vasconcelos, José Cipolla-Neto, Arne Lowden, Debra J. Skene and Claudia R. C. Moreno

Nutrients 2020, 12(2), 375; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu12020375 - 31 Jan 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2905

Abstract

Urbanization has contributed to extended wakefulness, which may in turn be associated with eating over a longer period. Here, we present a field study conducted in four groups with different work hours and places of living in order to investigate eating behavior (duration, content, and timing). Anthropometric measures were taken from the participants (rural (n = 22); town (n = 19); city-day workers (n = 11); city-night workers (n = 14)). In addition, a sociodemographic questionnaire was self-answered and 24-h food recalls were applied for three days. The 24-h food recalls revealed that fat intake varied according to the groups, with the highest consumption by the city-day workers. By contrast, city-day workers had the lowest intake of carbohydrate, whereas the rural group had the highest. In general, all groups had some degree of inadequacy in food consumption. Eating duration was negatively correlated with total energy intake, fat, and protein consumption in the rural and town groups. There was a positive correlation between body mass index and eating duration in both city groups. The rural group had the earliest start time of eating, and this was associated with a lower body mass index. This study suggested that food content and timing, as well as eating duration, differed according to place of living, which in turn may be linked to lifestyle. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)

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Review

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16 pages, 913 KiB

Open AccessReview

Circadian Variation in Human Milk Composition, a Systematic Review

by Merel F. Italianer, Eva F. G. Naninck, Jorine A. Roelants, Gijsbertus T. J. van der Horst, Irwin K. M. Reiss, Johannes B. van Goudoever, Koen F. M. Joosten, Inês Chaves and Marijn J. Vermeulen

Nutrients 2020, 12(8), 2328; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu12082328 - 04 Aug 2020

Cited by 73 | Viewed by 11170

Abstract

Background: Breastfeeding is considered the most optimal mode of feeding for neonates and mothers. Human milk changes over the course of lactation in order to perfectly suit the infant’s nutritional and immunological needs. Its composition also varies throughout the day. Circadian fluctuations in some bioactive components are suggested to transfer chronobiological information from mother to child to assist the development of the biological clock. This review aims to give a complete overview of studies examining human milk components found to exhibit circadian variation in their concentration. Methods: We included studies assessing the concentration of a specific human milk component more than once in 24 h. Study characteristics, including gestational age, lactational stage, sampling strategy, analytical method, and outcome were extracted. Methodological quality was graded using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Results: A total of 83 reports assessing the circadian variation in the concentration of 71 human milk components were included. Heterogeneity among studies was high. The methodological quality varied widely. Significant circadian variation is found in tryptophan, fats, triacylglycerol, cholesterol, iron, melatonin, cortisol, and cortisone. This may play a role in the child’s growth and development in terms of the biological clock. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)

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19 pages, 925 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Impact of Time of Day on Energy Expenditure: Implications for Long-Term Energy Balance

by Emma Shaw, Gloria K.W. Leung, Jessica Jong, Alison M. Coates, Rochelle Davis, Merran Blair, Catherine E. Huggins, Jillian Dorrian, Siobhan Banks, Nicole J. Kellow and Maxine P. Bonham

Nutrients 2019, 11(10), 2383; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nu11102383 - 06 Oct 2019

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 8903

Abstract

There is evidence to indicate that the central biological clock (i.e., our endogenous circadian system) plays a role in physiological processes in the body that impact energy regulation and metabolism. Cross-sectional data suggest that energy consumption later in the day and during the night is associated with weight gain. These findings have led to speculation that when, as well as what, we eat may be important for maintaining energy balance. Emerging literature suggests that prioritising energy intake to earlier during the day may help with body weight maintenance. Evidence from tightly controlled acute experimental studies indicates a disparity in the body’s ability to utilise (expend) energy equally across the day and night. Energy expenditure both at rest (resting metabolic rate) and after eating (thermic effect of food) is typically more efficient earlier during the day. In this review, we discuss the key evidence for a circadian pattern in energy utilisation and balance, which depends on meal timing. Whilst there is limited evidence that simply prioritising energy intake to earlier in the day is an effective strategy for weight loss, we highlight the potential benefits of considering the role of meal timing for improving metabolic health and energy balance. This review demonstrates that to advance our understanding of the contribution of the endogenous circadian system toward energy balance, targeted studies that utilise appropriate methodologies are required that focus on meal timing and frequency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Good Time to Eat: The Impact of Time of Day on Health Outcomes)

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