I am forwarding this article to my sisters with the note. Eat breakfast diet.
I do have a question about the impact on Gout? Does the body process Purines better earlier in the day?
A little background. When father was diagnosed with diabetes we went low sugar. Hypertension in the family we started the dash diet and Mediterranean diet. Now looking at the gout diet.
That’s a fascinating question, and one that’s hardly ever asked. Almost all of the studies looking at the effects of diet on gout focus on what’s eaten, not when.
That said, there is some evidence that timing might also be involved.
A large Korean study found that skipping breakfast was linked to a higher risk of having high blood uric acid levels. A caveat here: while gout is caused by a reaction to uric acid crystals in the joint, you can have high blood uric acid levels without gout, and gout without high uric acid levels.
A Chinese study found associations between certain foods at certain meals and a higher or lower risk of having elevated uric acid levels, but it’s a single study, and I’m not sure how much to make of the associations since they don’t all make much sense (alcohol at breakfast cuts risk by 25% while drinking it with dinner increases it by 13%). Most of the effect sizes were of the order of a few percent.
Not skipping breakfast is the main takeaway from the gout/meal timing studies, as it’s linked to many other better health outcomes, too.
Thanks for taking me back to gout. That was the topic of the first book I wrote a few years ago! It’s a poorly understood and typically mismanaged condition.
I eat dinner at 4:30. Any later and I'll pass. Breakfast at 8:00. Lunch sometimes. Eating late interferes w my sleep. My fasting is about 14 hrs a day...sleep time. Feeding window between 8 and 4:30. I lost tons of weight. I'm not that hungry most of the time. This has become much default over the years.
Most likely. After 36 years of going to bed at 6:00 so I could get up at 4 that routine has not changed. My diet and schedule was not so much deliberate as it was a matter of default. When I retired I lost 30 lb first year. I'm now down 50. The great thing is is that when you get to default hunger become more stable. I still Jones for a cupcake now and then😅
Thanks, Tom. There seems to be a common (mis)understanding that intermittent fasting means skipping breakfast and only eating between lunch and dinner.
But metabolically, that makes no sense, and we have lots of studies to show that if you do practice intermittent fasting, it’s far more effective if your eating window extends from an hour or two after waking to mid/late afternoon. Those late dinners are not what our physiology was designed for.
And, as you say, everything works so much better when our bodies have a predictable, regular daily rhythm. That’s why I’ve been writing regularly about circadian rhythms, but the lower open rate for those articles suggest people still don’t realise how critical that is.
Thanks for the encouragement. While folks look for the quick and sexy solution, the most effective strategies are almost always boring and predictable: sleep, aerobic and resistance exercise, balanced diet - mostly plants, circadian rhythms…
There’s a ton of evidence backing up their remarkable benefits, but somehow a ‘pomegranate juice cleanse’ or a ‘matcha-chia bowl’ always seems to be much more convincing - that’s the sort of nonsense that gets a thousand likes and leaves me despairing!
Intermittent fasting is easy if you count the hours that you are sleeping. No late night snacks, etc. Its not easy when your working full time with overtime.
AhhhhAAAAA!!!! I was right! I should send yr article to every damn secondary school HS principal & every school board member in the state of Texas!!!🤬🤬🤬 I begged everyone I ever knew in my 30+ teaching career - isn't there Some way to flip around school schedules? Send elementary 1st to start & let secondary start at 8:00 or even 9:00!?!!!! HS students do not function well at 7:15 am (especially those who must take school bus at 6:00 am)!!!! That's why you (school admin in the state) schedule the state-wide tests to not start until 9:00 or 10:00 am, right (or was that just something you told us for funsies)?!???!!! I swear, talk abt not being heard or seen for the length of one's career!!! Think of the toll it must take to survive 30 +/- years of that!!! Oh. Wait. I did. (& yeah, I spent the majority of that w/kids that were "inner-city", you know, gang members I wasn't aware of & yeah, I was "chairman" of my foreign language dept in a school w/around 2800 students. All I ever wanted to do was teach [discovered I was good at it😂] & every obstacle possible was placed in front of me & my kids.)
I am forwarding this article to my sisters with the note. Eat breakfast diet.
I do have a question about the impact on Gout? Does the body process Purines better earlier in the day?
A little background. When father was diagnosed with diabetes we went low sugar. Hypertension in the family we started the dash diet and Mediterranean diet. Now looking at the gout diet.
That’s a fascinating question, and one that’s hardly ever asked. Almost all of the studies looking at the effects of diet on gout focus on what’s eaten, not when.
That said, there is some evidence that timing might also be involved.
A large Korean study found that skipping breakfast was linked to a higher risk of having high blood uric acid levels. A caveat here: while gout is caused by a reaction to uric acid crystals in the joint, you can have high blood uric acid levels without gout, and gout without high uric acid levels.
A Chinese study found associations between certain foods at certain meals and a higher or lower risk of having elevated uric acid levels, but it’s a single study, and I’m not sure how much to make of the associations since they don’t all make much sense (alcohol at breakfast cuts risk by 25% while drinking it with dinner increases it by 13%). Most of the effect sizes were of the order of a few percent.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/14/3109
Not skipping breakfast is the main takeaway from the gout/meal timing studies, as it’s linked to many other better health outcomes, too.
Thanks for taking me back to gout. That was the topic of the first book I wrote a few years ago! It’s a poorly understood and typically mismanaged condition.
I eat dinner at 4:30. Any later and I'll pass. Breakfast at 8:00. Lunch sometimes. Eating late interferes w my sleep. My fasting is about 14 hrs a day...sleep time. Feeding window between 8 and 4:30. I lost tons of weight. I'm not that hungry most of the time. This has become much default over the years.
That’s a great routine. Sounds like you’ve got it nailed!
Did shifting meals earlier contribute to your weight loss?
Most likely. After 36 years of going to bed at 6:00 so I could get up at 4 that routine has not changed. My diet and schedule was not so much deliberate as it was a matter of default. When I retired I lost 30 lb first year. I'm now down 50. The great thing is is that when you get to default hunger become more stable. I still Jones for a cupcake now and then😅
Ben, the concept of "eating jetlag" is the missing link in most intermittent
fasting conversations. People focus entirely on the duration of the fast and
ignore the chaos of the timing. The liver and pancreas do not just process food;
they anticipate it based on the preceding days. When you constantly shift that
window, you force those organs into a permanent state of metabolic whiplash.
Your point about breakfast acting as an anchor rather than a magic bullet is
exactly the right framework.
Dr Tom Kane
Thanks, Tom. There seems to be a common (mis)understanding that intermittent fasting means skipping breakfast and only eating between lunch and dinner.
But metabolically, that makes no sense, and we have lots of studies to show that if you do practice intermittent fasting, it’s far more effective if your eating window extends from an hour or two after waking to mid/late afternoon. Those late dinners are not what our physiology was designed for.
And, as you say, everything works so much better when our bodies have a predictable, regular daily rhythm. That’s why I’ve been writing regularly about circadian rhythms, but the lower open rate for those articles suggest people still don’t realise how critical that is.
Ben, the low open rates on circadian topics do not surprise me. People want a
quick prescription or a complex biohack, not the unsexy reality that light and
meal timing dictate their entire metabolism. Circadian alignment isn't
glamorous, which is exactly why it is the most powerful biological lever they
are actively ignoring. Keep hammering the message regardless.
Thanks for the encouragement. While folks look for the quick and sexy solution, the most effective strategies are almost always boring and predictable: sleep, aerobic and resistance exercise, balanced diet - mostly plants, circadian rhythms…
There’s a ton of evidence backing up their remarkable benefits, but somehow a ‘pomegranate juice cleanse’ or a ‘matcha-chia bowl’ always seems to be much more convincing - that’s the sort of nonsense that gets a thousand likes and leaves me despairing!
Ben, the wellness industry is built entirely on monetizing the illusion of a
biological shortcut. You cannot put a patent on sleep, morning sunlight, or
mechanical tension, so the market invents a complex juice cleanse to sell
instead. Let the influencers collect their likes while we focus on the actual
cellular architecture. The truth is always unsexy, but it is the only thing that
actually works.
Intermittent fasting is easy if you count the hours that you are sleeping. No late night snacks, etc. Its not easy when your working full time with overtime.
AhhhhAAAAA!!!! I was right! I should send yr article to every damn secondary school HS principal & every school board member in the state of Texas!!!🤬🤬🤬 I begged everyone I ever knew in my 30+ teaching career - isn't there Some way to flip around school schedules? Send elementary 1st to start & let secondary start at 8:00 or even 9:00!?!!!! HS students do not function well at 7:15 am (especially those who must take school bus at 6:00 am)!!!! That's why you (school admin in the state) schedule the state-wide tests to not start until 9:00 or 10:00 am, right (or was that just something you told us for funsies)?!???!!! I swear, talk abt not being heard or seen for the length of one's career!!! Think of the toll it must take to survive 30 +/- years of that!!! Oh. Wait. I did. (& yeah, I spent the majority of that w/kids that were "inner-city", you know, gang members I wasn't aware of & yeah, I was "chairman" of my foreign language dept in a school w/around 2800 students. All I ever wanted to do was teach [discovered I was good at it😂] & every obstacle possible was placed in front of me & my kids.)