Breakfast holds the crown for the most crucial meal of the day, and with good reason.
From the heated discussions over the ultimate breakfast sandwich to the countless praises sung for oatmeal, there’s no end to the debate about the ideal morning meal, particularly when health benefits are considered.
But recent research suggests that longevity might be influenced not only by what you eat but also by the timing of your initial meal.
While New Yorkers might be enamored with brunch, it could be wise to consider having that first meal of the day a bit earlier.
A comprehensive study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined more than 31,000 adults aged 40 and above, revealing that when you consume the first and last calories of your day may significantly impact your lifespan.
And those who ate their first meal later — after noon, specifically — had an increased risk of dying early from any cause by 29%.
Study participants were asked to record what they ate and when they ate it within a 24-hour period, with the time between the first and last meal known as the eating window.
A pattern emerged: The later the participants ate their first meal, the greater the risk.
Compared with eating breakfast between 7 and 8 a.m., a 10% higher risk of dying early from any cause was linked to those who ate breakfast between 8 and 10 a.m.
The difference rose to 19% for those who ate between 10 a.m. and noon.
And the risk of death from a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, followed a similar pattern.
Eating after noon was linked to a 46% higher risk of cardiovascular death compared with breaking a fast between 7 and 8 a.m.
Meanwhile, those aged 50 years or older who ate later also had a shorter life expectancy by nearly 2.5 years on average.
While the findings only show an association between a later start to eating and decreased longevity, they do add to the growing evidence that health may depend not just on what we eat, but also when.
Last year, a study from Mass General Brigham revealed that later breakfast times in later life were not only linked to a higher risk of early death, but also to depression, fatigue and oral health problems.
In fact, breakfast shifted later as health problems accumulated.
Other research has also shown that consistently eating later can negatively affect your 24-hour biological clock, leading to blood sugar spikes and higher levels of stress hormones.
“Later eating should be interpreted as a potential risk marker, and possibly a modifiable behavior, rather than definitive evidence of a direct causal effect,” senior author of the first study Zhilei Shan told ScienceAlert.
Several other factors also limited the study’s results, including the fact that researchers only looked at a single 24-hour eating window, sleep patterns, activity timing and more.