Reacción a "Reactions: A preliminary investigation presented at a conference claims that restricting meals to an 8-hour window increases the risk of cardiovascular death by 91%"

Time-restricted eating is popular as a means of reducing calorie intake, although its proponents claim other benefits such as ‘ramping up metabolism’.  This work is very important in showing that we need long-term studies on the effects of this practice.  But this abstract leaves many questions unanswered, and further research will be needed.  We don’t know the body weights of the participants: maybe the time-restricted eaters were making themselves too thin.  We need to know more about their medical state, for instance, blood cholesterol and blood pressure.  Finally we don’t know whether those who follow time-restricted eating might have done so because a physician has told them they need to lose weight because they are at high risk of cardiovascular disease.  In general, we should be cautious about widespread adoption of eating strategies that have not been properly evaluated for longer-term effects.