Small Trial Finds Time-Restricted Eating May Lower Blood Sugar in Type 1 Diabetes

A trial led by University of Illinois Chicago kinesiology and nutrition professor Krista Varady has found that time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, may help adults with Type 1 diabetes manage their blood sugar. The researchers called it the first study to examine intermittent fasting specifically in people with Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition in which the body produces little or no insulin and which affects less than 1% of people in the United States.

The trial randomly assigned 32 adults from the Chicago area, all of whom had Type 1 diabetes and were classified as obese, to follow one of three approaches for six months: eating only between noon and 8 p.m. without counting calories, cutting calorie intake by 25%, or making no changes as a control group. The results were published in the journal Diabetes Care.

After six months, the time-restricted eating group had lower blood sugar than the calorie-counting group, with average HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar over roughly three months, dropping by about 0.5%. The eating schedule did not raise the risk of dangerously high or low blood sugar, or of diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication caused by insufficient insulin.

Varady called the results "extremely promising" but described the trial as a first step, saying anyone with diabetes considering a change to their eating pattern should work closely with an endocrinologist or healthcare provider. She said she now hopes to test the approach in larger, multi-site studies to see whether the results hold more broadly.