“Fried air”. Thus, as it was designed and communicated, the immunologist from the University of Padua Antonella Viola defines the study presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association from which it emerges, for those who follow the diet known as intermittent fasting – increasingly popular and also married by the scientist, co-author of a book on the subject – a greater risk of cardiovascular death.
“In scientific research – writes Viola in a long post on Facebook – there is a big difference between an article published in a serious scientific journal, generally after many months of checks and reviews by experts, and a communication without data presented to a congress. This is why the outcry aroused by a simple communication from a group of researchers, which states that intermittent fasting (fasting more than 16 hours a day) would be associated with a significant increase in mortality. Even more absurd – he underlines – if we analyze the content of this meager communication. First of all, by the researchers' own admission, we are talking about data reported by people (therefore not controlled) and concerning only 2 days. To this it must be added that there is no information about the type of diet: it means that we could find ourselves in the position of comparing a vegetarian health expert who eats fruit, vegetables and legumes for 12 hours a day with a person who skips all meals and eat a couple of burgers, fries, coke and ice cream at the end of the day.”
Because “even the time at which meals are consumed is not considered” in the study in question, specifies the immunologist, “despite It is very clear that eating late in the evening is a risk factor for the heart and health in general and that intermittent fasting has the purpose of bringing order to the eating pattern and avoiding consuming food at night. And then – Viola continues – we don't know if and which participants in the study smoked, consumed alcohol and in what quantity, if they did physical activity and of what type, if they suffered from insomnia or rested well, all factors that have an enormous impact on health . The communication in question is therefore, at the moment and in these ways, hot air.”
“But it is a useful provocation – adds the scientist – to remember some fundamental concepts, widely underlined by anyone who has been involved in intermittent fasting for work or for dissemination or, better yet, circadian nutrition. Fasting for more than 12 consecutive hours – highlights Viola – is not suitable for everyone and, if you want to undertake a process of restricting the time window dedicated to nutrition, you need to talk to your doctor about it.”
“The purpose of circadian nutrition – the immunologist points out – is, as the name suggests, to align nutrition and metabolism with circadian rhythms, bringing order where the frenetic rhythms of our lives often require us to eat at very variable times and to concentrate most of the calories in dinner, which is frequently eaten very late. On the contrary, circadian nutrition suggests consuming meals at regular times and not burdening the hours dedicated to sleep with digestion, therefore consuming the last light meal by 8pm. Finally, the type of food consumed certainly makes a huge difference because no diet is better than the Mediterranean one, based on the regular consumption of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and legumes”.
“While laboratory experiments are controlled and identify not only the possible relationships between two events, but also the causal relationships that link them, the cause-effect mechanisms essential to explain a phenomenon – explains the scientist – studies on human beings are often difficult due to the intrinsic impossibility of controlling all the variables. However, there are controlled and randomized clinical studies which, if carried out correctly, can giveImportant and valid information on the effectiveness and safety of interventions, therapies and medications. To reassure people who are scared, it is good to remember – Viola points out – that not only the laboratory experiments, but also the controlled and randomized clinical studies carried out so far to evaluate the effects of circadian nutrition have shown that it is safe and can lead to benefits to our state of health”.
The immunologist concludes with “a comment on this mode of communication which only creates confusion, scares and is truly harmful: some foreign newspaper reported the news, but by interviewing multiple voices who radically downsized the meaning of the abstract. For example the Washington Post interviews Professor Gardener of Stanford who comments: 'Isn't it that in the study the people who eat for less than 8 hours a day work three jobs, are very stressed and don't have time to eat?'. Here, a sentence like this – he glosses Viola – would have been enough to make readers understand that we are faced with unreliable news and not to be scared.”
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