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As the weekend arrives, breakfast is delayed until noon, lunch turns into an evening meal, and dinner may extend until late at night.
It seems like just a break from the work schedule, but a recent study suggests that the frequent change in meal times between workdays and holidays may be associated with an increased risk of heart disease, especially in men.
Researchers call this difference 'meal timing discrepancy,' referring to a disorder similar to jet lag, but occurring without boarding a plane or crossing a time zone.
How is meal timing discrepancy calculated?
It's not about delaying a single meal, but the difference between the midpoint of the eating period during workdays and the midpoint on weekends.
If a person starts eating at 7 a.m. and finishes at 7 p.m. during workdays, and then shifts to eating their first meal at noon and the last meal near midnight on weekends, the eating window has moved several hours.
The difference can also occur in the opposite direction, with meals being earlier on weekends compared to workdays.
What did the study find?
The study, published in the journal 'Communications Medicine,' was based on data from 104,806 adults who participated in the French 'NutriNet-Santé' study between 2009 and 2023.
The average age of participants was about 43 years, and women made up 79% of the sample. Participants recorded the times they ate foods and beverages in repeated dietary questionnaires, and researchers then monitored cases of cardiovascular disease for an average of 8.1 years.
During the follow-up period, researchers recorded 2,368 cases of cardiovascular disease, including 1,270 cases of coronary heart disease and 1,098 cases of cerebrovascular disease.
The results showed that each additional hour of difference between meal times on workdays and weekends was associated with a 14% higher risk of cardiovascular disease and a 21% higher risk of coronary heart disease in men.
Researchers did not observe a similar statistical association in women, nor did they find evidence of an association between meal timing discrepancy and the risk of stroke.
Delay is Not the Only Problem
The results showed that advancing or delaying meals on weekends was associated with higher risks compared to maintaining similar times throughout the week.
The association was clearest in men who advanced their eating midpoint by more than an hour during the holidays. However, researchers emphasized that the number of participants in some of these groups was limited, requiring caution when interpreting the differences.
The relationship also appeared stronger among people who ate their first meal late in the day.
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