Chrono-nutrition: Persona taps into time-sensitive eating for weight loss and anti-aging

13 Jul 2020 --- While personalized nutrition is reaching mainstream status, chrono-nutrition has great potential to add a new dimension to this trend. NutritionInsight discusses this with Dr. Michael Roizen, Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic and Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for Persona, part of Nestlé Health Science (NHSc). The personalized supplement program is currently working on projects to enable consumers to harness the potential anti-aging and weight management benefits of building a diet around certain times of the day.

“We’ve gotten used to eating bigger meals at dinner, rather than in the opposite way. Having breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper is probably the best way to eat, because you are much more metabolically equipped to handle calories in the morning, whereas calories in the evening tend to translate into weight gain,” Dr. Roizen explains.

He states animal studies have shown that one calorie in the morning is processed as 0.9 calories, whereas one calorie in the evening “counts” as 1.1. This basic principle could have major ramifications for people’s length and quality of life, as well as how much they weigh.

By cycling genes between starvation and adequate food, the body goes from harvesting old cells to growing young cells. This gets rid of senescent cells, which calls on other cells in the body to “act old.” This can be achieved through intermittent fasting (IF), also called time-restricted eating or periodic fasting. This eating pattern has been gaining popularity in recent years and was pegged as a top diet for 2020. 

Persona is now working on a project to help people who are on a periodic fasting routine.“Data in animals show that they live 15 to 30 percent longer with calorie restriction. When this is alternated with calorie plenty, this rises to 100 to 200 percent longer, with intact function. In humans, this senescent harvesting to growth cycling seems to eradicate most biomarkers of aging in humans as well. However, we don’t have mortality data in humans as that takes decades to get,” Dr. Roizen details. 

Supplements in the chrono-nutrition space
In light of this evidence, Persona is now working on a project to help people who are on a periodic fasting routine. The supplement packages could help them obtain the longevity benefits of the senescent to growth cycling. Dr. Roizen pegs this project as needing around another six months to complete.

“Persona will have different packs for days that you are doing periodic fasting compared to other days. Some supplements can break your fast, which is why they have to be specifically chosen. For some people, the easiest way to fast also decreases your amino acids and your sugar intake. It is largely a ketosis-driven process that gets you into harvesting senescent cells, so you want to have low-sugar supplements, meaning no sugary gummies, for example. You also have to be careful to avoid supplements with amino acids,” explains Dr. Roizen. 

According to Persona, there are key times of the day to consider when taking nutritional supplements to help support sleep patterns and energy levels, for example.

• Magnesium taken at night can help activate neurotransmitters responsible for relaxing the body and mind, encouraging more restful sleep. 
• Supplements with energetic properties like cordyceps and fermented ginseng are best taken in the morning to help the body remain focused throughout the day. 
• A multi-vitamin can be split down the middle with half taken in the morning and the remaining amount before bed to better distribute the nutrients the body receives. 
• Iron and calcium should be taken separately because they compete for absorption in the body. Taking iron with vitamin C also enhances absorption.

Persona has also teamed up with a group of experts on bariatric surgery for obese patients, who have specific vitamin and nutrient needs. The company is now working on a specific nutrient package for this group, which can then be further personalized. Dr. Roizen estimates that this project could be complete by October 1.

Dr. Roizen has also authored The What to Eat When Cookbook, which is set to be released October 20. The book features 135 recipes targeting consumers eating from 11 am to 7 pm each day. The recipes also fall within the Mediterranean diet, which has been linked to a range of benefits. “The book is largely about how to prevent certain problems, and then how to treat them if you do get them. However, prevention is obviously easier,” he states.

In May, Jason Brown, Persona’s Founder and CEO, told NutritionInsight how COVID-19 will “forever change the health and wellness sector” from a business point of view, as more people seek to cut through the nutrition clutter and have a trusted voice of authority.

Further investigation takes off
Elaborating on the evidence for chrono-nutrition, Dr. Roizen points to a US group crossover experiment of people trying to lose weight. One group had a 700 calorie breakfast, 300 calorie lunch and 300 calorie dinner, while the other group had a 300 calorie breakfast, 300 calorie lunch and 700 calorie dinner. The group who ate the 700 calorie breakfast lost 50 percent more weight than those who had large dinners. Most people would benefit from skewing their calorie intake earlier.

He also details a large Spanish study featuring women trying to lose weight, who all ate the same number of calories. However, those who ate 70 percent of their calories before 2 pm lost 25 percent more weight than those who ate this proportion of calories after 2 pm. While this was true for most members of this group, there were some who did not conform to this trend.

Despite this small group who do not seem to exhibit this timing behavior, Dr. Roizen notes that most people would benefit from skewing their calorie intake earlier. It is not possible to know who exactly the exceptions are without fairly complex metabolic studies, but he states that it looks like eating earlier is beneficial for between 82 to 87 percent of US consumers of mixed races, ages and genders. 

Meanwhile, a study presented this week revealed that consuming whey protein at night increases blood sugar – which is linked to various health problems – the next morning in healthy people. Researchers from the University of Bath, UK, investigated whether waking-up at night to consume some protein might keep blood sugars lower the next morning. Surprisingly, the blood sugar response to breakfast was higher when participants had consumed protein rather than plain water at 4 am.

One possible explanation for the result is that the body does not expect or need much food to be consumed during the night and so the protein itself was turned into sugar. This may result in the body having more carbohydrates already available upon waking, meaning that the energy in the breakfast can less easily be used or stored, so it builds-up more in the blood.

By Katherine Durrell