Health News Update: When You Eat is as Important as What You Eat

Mark Smith • January 27, 2025

Hello everyone:

 

By now you are aware that what we eat will shape our health, either good or bad. You also know that this has everything to do with the inflammatory potential of the overall dietary pattern. And did you know that WHEN you eat also shapes your total inflammatory burden significantly! This has to do with aligning your circadian rhythms. These rhythms optimize certain functions at certain times of the day…in all of us. A lifestyle that coordinates food intake with our circadian rhythms has significant benefits.


Studies in mice and humans have shown that TRE can help with weight loss and result in metabolic improvement. TRE can be categorized into various subtypes based on different time windows for restricting food intake. Early TRE (eTRE) means starting the first meal in the early morning (before 10:00 a.m.), while late TRE (lateTRE) involves limiting mealtimes to the afternoon or evening. Based on the duration of fasting time, eTRE includes formats such as 16:08, 14:10, and 18:06 (F:E). Studies on circadian rhythms have confirmed that the thermal effect, insulin sensitivity and ꞵ-cell (pancreas insulin) function are better in the morning. eTRE is now widely proposed to be more in line with the circadian rhythm than lateTRE. Furthermore, skipping breakfast and late eating have been linked to T2D (type 2 diabetes), MetS (Metabolic syndrome), and obesity in various studies, and they may influence gut microbiome composition.

 

eTRE (early Time Restricted Eating) resulted in improved FM (Fat Mass), abdominal obesity, inflammation, and blood pressure and prevented FFM (Fat Free Mass = muscles) loss compared with non-TRE, especially in the 16:08 F:E strategy. It also had better metabolic effects on body weight, FBG (Fasting Blood Glucose) and HOMA-IR (Insulin Resistance) than non-TRE or lateTRE. Adherence-related outcomes were not affected. eTRE appears to be an effective strategy for the early prevention and treatment of MetS (pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, inflammation) and sarcopenic (muscle loss) obesity.

 

Furthermore, we found that eTRE resulted in reduced abdominal fat measures, such as WC (Waist Circumference) and VFA (Visceral Adipose Tissue), reduced inflammatory states via the lowering, and improved metabolic markers…”

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871402124000134

 

Bottom Line:

 

Please notice that eTRF lowers inflammation. What the papers do not mention is the positive effects that eTRF has on immune function and longevity, which are also significant.

For most of us, the 14 hours of fasting and 10 hours of eating works very well and is very easily done.

 

 

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Health News Update: Inflammaging is Bad News

By Mark Smith • August 25, 2025
Hello everyone: I think I have mentioned inflammaging before but never really focused on it. So, let’s dig into this interesting topic. Inflammaging is when chronic, low-grade inflammation develops with age as dietary and environmental stress accumulates, contributing to the development of all of the various age-related diseases and health issues. It results from a loss of control over systemic inflammation, which tends to come from an unbalanced and dysregulated immune system. One of the key drivers of inflammaging is diet…which means that one of the key tools to slow and reduce aging is our what we eat as well as what we don’t eat. In this paper, the authors reveal that the typical Western Diet (what science calls the Standard American Diet or S.A.D.) is the best example of a pro-inflammatory diet pattern. “ Conclusion: Inflammation is a key physiological process in immunity and tissue repair. However, during aging it becomes increasingly more chronic. In addition, we found that certain foods such as saturated fats have pro-inflammatory activity. Taking this into account, in this review we have proposed some dietary guidelines as well as a list of compounds present in foods with anti-inflammatory activity. It must be taken into account that the amounts used in the studies that detect anti-inflammatory activity of these compounds are very high, and the intake of a single food to achieve its anti-inflammatory power is not feasible. (My Comment: what this means is that it is the overall dietary pattern that matters the most.) However, the combination of foods rich in compounds with anti-inflammatory activity could exert beneficial effects during aging and in pathologies associated with inflammation and in reducing the detrimental effects of foods with pro-inflammatory activity. Therefore, we can conclude that the compounds in our diet with anti-inflammatory activity could help alleviate the inflammatory processes derived from diseases and unhealthy diets and thereby promote healthy aging. Thus, we can use diet not only for nourishment, but also as medicine.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8389628/ anti-inflammatory diet and health aging https://www.healthline.com/health/5-minute-guide-to-inflamm-aging Bottom Line: We all must age, and how we do so is largely under our own control. To create an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is not that difficult, especially if you put it all together in stages. Start with a clean, whole-food, unprocessed plant-based food plan. And to begin, first focus on what you can add into your menus and use those additions to sort of crowd out the things that are more inflammatory…sugar, refined grains, processed and pre-packaged things. Set realistic goals such as going plant based one or two days a week, or even one meal…just start and gradually work up. It has to be doable so don’t stress. Next, start moving and doing regular exercise at least three times a week…and find what you enjoy doing and focus on that. Then add activities that de-stress you, whether that is socializing, church, meditation, prayer, yoga, etc. Overall, shift your attention to giving love to things that love you back. Sugar, drive-thru and processed food like thingies do not love you back but apples or kiwis or berries or veggies do. Sitting around does not love you back but going for a short walk after a meal does love you back. Hang out and give love to the people you really like to be with, they will most always love you back. Create a love you back lifestyle and see how you feel.

Health News Update: Blocking Internet on Smartphones Improves Mental Health

By Mark Smith • August 18, 2025
Hello everyone: I frequently hear about mental health issues with the people in our practice. They could be experiencing depression, or anxiety, feel flat, can’t focus or sustain attention, or may not feel well in general. These comments can come from anyone of any age…I can hear from parents about their kids, or it may be themselves experiencing these feeling. So, when I read this paper, it felt important to share it because we all seem to have mobile phones. Here is how the paper is summarized: “Concern about how smartphones affect users is widespread: half of American smartphone users—and 80% of those under age 30—worry that they use their device too much, and correlational research suggests that smartphone use is negatively related to mental health and cognitive functioning. However, few large-scale experiments have tested for causal effects. We report such an experiment, finding that blocking mobile internet for 2 weeks reduces smartphone use and improves subjective well-being (SWB) (including life satisfaction and positive affect), mental health (more than antidepressants), and sustained attention (as much as being 10 years younger). Despite the many benefits mobile internet offers, reducing the constant connection to the digital world can have large positive effects.” https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/2/pgaf017/8016017?utm_source=klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%28Email%20-%20Chris%20Kresser%20General%20News%29%20Chris%27s%20Friday%20Favorites&utm_term=randomized%20controlled%20trial&utm_content=randomized%20controlled%20trial&_kx=fARhTo_gi8X3B_2-MaeO_RyzUl9tvT3tr4re-Dy7cNQ.my75y6 Bottom Line: It seems like a smartphone ‘timeout’ can be very beneficial for mental, emotional, physical health and can be an important part of stress reduction. The world today, with nearly instant communications, the almost constant bad and anxiety promoting news, and the fast pace of data consumption can add up to significantly stress us out and pull us down…or just simple keep us distracted. From what I can see, a ‘timeout’ may be just what the doctor ordered.
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