- When you eat your meals may matter just as much as what you eat, according to scientists.
- A recent study found that people who ate their breakfast and dinner within certain time windows each day lived longer.
- Here, experts break down the findings.
You’ve probably been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it might not be just about what you eat. In fact, when you eat might play a role in how long you live, according to findings from a new study.
Now, it’s not the first study to link meal timing to health, but it does add to the growing body of evidence that circadian rhythm may influence more than we think. Below, doctors share their thoughts on how meal times affect health—and what lifestyle takeaways you can glean from the findings.
Meet the experts: Mary Greene, M.D., a cardiologist with Manhattan Cardiology in New York City and LabFinder contributor; Juan Lopez, M.D., cardiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida; and Kaustubh Dabhadkar, M.D., board-certified preventive cardiologist at Novant Health and medical advisor to Veevo Health.
What did the study find?
In the study, which was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers asked a group of 31,000 adults over 40 years old to self-report when they ate their first and last meals over a 24-hour period. Then, they took note of participants who died and the times they ate after a nine-year follow-up.
It turned out that those who consumed their first meal (of any caloric amount) before 7 a.m. or after 8 a.m. lived shorter lives than those who ate within that 7 to 8 a.m. sweet spot. More specifically, each hour of delayed eating after 8 a.m. raised the chances of dying of any cause or dying of cardiovascular disease during follow-up by 3% and 5%, respectively.
As for dinner, researchers also noticed a similar link between early and late eating and premature mortality: People who ate before 7 p.m. or after midnight also tended to experience an increased risk of dying during the follow-up.
And there seemed to be an even bigger effect for those who ate both breakfast and dinner at less-than-ideal times. Specifically, those over 50 who ate their first meal after 12 p.m.—and their last meal either before 7 p.m. or after midnight—experienced the biggest hit to their lifespan. Their life expectancy was 2.5 years shorter than those who timed breakfast between 7 and 8 a.m. and dinner between 7 and 8 p.m.
How mealtime may influence lifespan
Your meal times inform your body’s circadian rhythm, or wake-to-sleep clock—and there is extensive research on its (and sleep’s) impact on health and longevity. Circadian rhythm disruptions can also mess up your metabolism, says Mary Greene, M.D., a cardiologist with Manhattan Cardiology in New York City and LabFinder contributor. That’s important, because metabolic issues can lead to weight gain and chronic illnesses like diabetes, which can raise your risk of premature mortality and cardiovascular disease.
Add Prevention as a preferred source in your Google search results.
Use your Google account to add this to your settings.
But it’s also important to note some limitations with the study. For one, it was a retrospective study, meaning researchers looked back in time at existing data and compared it to outcomes in the present day. So while its findings suggest a relationship between mealtime and lifespan, it doesn’t definitively prove that early or late mealtimes caused the results, says Juan Lopez, M.D., a cardiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida.
In particular, our experts were skeptical about the potential risks it posed for folks eating dinner before 7 p.m. After all, for many people, it’s normal to eat around 5 or 6 p.m.—and those earlier dinner times actually tend to be associated with greater health benefits. That’s because a solid body of prior research has linked nighttime eating or eating after dusk to health risks like diabetes, blood sugar spikes, and greater chances of dying prematurely.
“I would want these findings to be verified before people delay their dinner,” says Kaustubh Dabhadkar, M.D., board-certified preventive cardiologist at Novant Health and medical advisor to Veevo Health.
What’s more, it’s possible that people with “optimal” meal timing may simply have other characteristics that contribute to an overall healthier lifestyle, the study authors noted—say, a more regularly timed job or higher income—which could contribute to the longevity benefits they found.
The bottom line
“Understanding the body’s circadian rhythms is important to optimize metabolic health and reduce risk of cardiovascular diseases,” says Dr. Dabhadkar. “The association between late dinner and poor metabolic health is well known. So, when we eat may be as important as what we eat.”
Even so, meal timing is just one of many lifestyle choices that impact longevity. Diet and exercise, for example, are just as important for staying healthy and living a full life, notes Dr. Lopez. And the experts we spoke to just aren’t sold on the potential benefits of pushing back your dinner.
So, what should you do? This study, and existing research about meal times and health, supports eating breakfast early—and definitely before noon. Consider eating a filling, balanced meal soon after waking to prep your body for the day. As for dinner, well, the recommendations are mixed. More research is needed to nail down the best supper time. But at the very least, if you’re prone to GI issues like heartburn, you may want to avoid eating too close to bedtime.
Read the full article here