ArticleScientific reports2026
Timing of food intake, chrononutritional behavior patterns, and risk of metabolic syndrome in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort.
Article in Scientific reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Growing evidence from preclinical studies suggests that meal timing influences metabolic health. However, evidence in humans is inconclusive. This study aims to evaluate the associations between timing and frequency of food intake, energy distribution and chrononutritional behavior patterns, with metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk in a large cohort. We used dietary, lifestyle and sociodemographic, biological and clinical data from 16,436 adults (72% females, 51 years ± 13.7) from the NutriNet-Santé cohort, who attended a clinical visit (2011-2014). Associations between timing of first and last eating episodes of the day, number of eating occasions, nighttime fasting duration (NFD), eating jetlag, and percentage of energy intake after 5PM (from repeated 24-h records), and the risk of MetS, were evaluated using Poisson regression models, adjusted for key confounders. Chrononutritional behavior patterns were identified through PCA. All analyses were sex-stratified. At the clinical visit (after 2.1 years), 1,936 cases (11.8%) of MetS were identified. In fully adjusted models, in females, a later first eating occasion was associated with a higher risk of MetS (RR = 1.09 (1.02-1.16), P = 0.007). A prolonged NFD was associated with a higher risk of MetS, only when combined with a first eating occasion later than 8AM (RR = 1.11 (1.04-1.20), P = 0.002). In males, greater energy intake after 5PM (RR = 1.12 (1.04-1.20), P = 0.004), and a greater adherence to a pattern characterized by energy-rich first eating occasions (RR = 0.89 (0.84-0.95), P < 0.001) were associated with the risk of MetS. No associations were found between number of eating occasions or eating jetlag with MetS risk. This study highlights sex-specific associations between timing and distribution of food intake with MetS risk. These findings suggest that, beyond dietary quality, meal timing may serve as a complementary strategy for improving metabolic health and preventing MetS. Further longitudinal research is warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.