Variable Eating Patterns: A Potential Novel Risk Factor for Systemic Inflammation in Women

Abstract

Background: The timing and regularity of eating patterns could play a role in systemic inflammation, as circadian clocks responsible for daily rhythms of inflammatory signaling are entrained by food intake.

Purpose: To evaluate associations of intra-weekly and weekday-weekend differences in eating timing patterns with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP).

Methods: A community-based sample of 103 U.S. women from the American Heart Association Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network completed a meal-timing questionnaire and provided a blood sample for measurement of hsCRP. Differences in weekday versus weekend eating start time, eating end time, and nightly fasting duration were calculated as eating jetlag metrics. Intra-weekly variability in eating timing patterns was defined by the standard deviation (SD) of these variables. Multivariable linear regression models were used to evaluate cross-sectional associations of eating timing variability metrics with hsCRP.

Results: Each additional 30-min difference in weekday-weekend eating end time was related to 13% higher hsCRP (p = .023). Similarly, every 30-min increase in eating end time SD, reflecting greater variability in timing of last eating occasion, was associated with 29% higher hsCRP. Per 1-hr weekday-weekend difference in nightly fasting duration, there was a 45% elevation in hsCRP (p = .003). Every 30-min increase in nightly fasting duration SD, representing greater variability in span of the daily fasting/eating periods, was associated with 46% higher hsCRP.

Conclusions: Variable eating timing patterns were associated with higher hsCRP. Intervention studies are needed to determine whether stabilizing the timing of eating occasions may represent a novel strategy to reduce chronic inflammation.

Keywords: Chronic disease prevention; Eating jetlag; Eating timing variability; Inflammation; Women’s health.