While most criticism of American dietary habits focuses on what we eat, a new study suggests that the source of our obesity epidemic might have as much to do with when we eat.
Or rather, the fact that we never seem to stop eating.
New research conducted by two professors at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., shows that most Americans eat throughout the day, as opposed to consuming all of their calories from the traditional three square meals.
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The study was a two-part process in which participants were surveyed about their eating habits and then monitored to see how closely their perceptions of their habits reflected reality.
"Most participants thought they don't eat or drink that regularly outside their breakfast-lunch-dinner routine," said study co-author Satchidananda Panda.
However, the same people who claimed they rarely ate between meals often spread their caloric intake over a 15-hour period. The intensity of the eating is not consistent; less than a quarter of calories were consumed before noon, while more than a third came after 6 p.m.
The 150 adults who participated in the study were considered healthy and were not asked to alter their diets in any way during the three-week observation period.
They were asked to take pictures of their food, while an app they were equipped with recorded the total calories, time, and place of the food intake.
The potential for the findings to effect positive change were tested on a follow-up group of eight obese adults. During a 16-week period, they were asked to restrict their eating to a ten-hour period during the day, but were not asked to abide by any other dietary restrictions.
The results were encouraging: The participants lost an average of seven pounds over 16 weeks.
Why? Probably because the time restrictions led them to cut back their daily caloric intake by 20 percent.
"Basically this new study helps confirm what we already suspect," Lora Sandon, a professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, told HealthNews Daily. "Eating sporadically and at all hours is just not good for our health.
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