Eating breakfast earlier in the day might help you live longer, a government-funded study suggests.  

A study conducted by researchers at Mass General Brigham, a hospital system connected with Harvard, tracked close to 3,000 individuals who were middle-aged or senior for almost 25 years to analyze their dietary patterns.

Throughout the study, the researchers found that participants increasingly started taking their breakfast and dinner later as they grew older, with a reduced duration between these two meals.

However, they found delaying breakfast was consistently associated with depression, fatigue and oral health issues.

Late eaters were also about eight percent more likely to die within 10 years than those who ate earlier in the day.  

Interestingly, those who chose to have dinner later in the evening faced a higher likelihood of encountering oral health problems compared to those who preferred an earlier dinner.

The study team suggests that eating later may interfere with the communication among organs like the liver and gut, as well as disrupt the brain’s circadian rhythm, which is crucial for regulating sleep, hormone levels, and body temperature.

This diminishes sleep quality, which has consistently been linked to greater chronic disease risk.  

A study from Mass General Brigham found people who ate later in the day were more likely to die within 10 years (stock image)

Dr. Hassan Dashti, a study author and both a nutrition scientist and circadian biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, stated: ‘Our findings indicate that alterations in the timing of meals, notably breakfast, in older adults could act as a straightforward indicator of their overall health.’

He added that changes in mealtime patterns could be used by patients and healthcare providers as an early alert to investigate potential physical or mental health concerns.

‘Also, encouraging older adults in having consistent meal schedules could become part of broader strategies to promoting healthy aging and longevity.’

As of 2023, the latest CDC data available, life expectancy in the US is 78.4 years.  

The study, published Thursday in the journal Communications Medicine, was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Researchers looked at 2,945 UK adults from the University of Manchester Longitudinal Study of Cognition in Normal Healthy Old Age. Participants were between 42 and 94 years old and were followed from 1983 to 2017.

The average age was 64, and 71 percent of participants were women.  

Participants completed optional questionnaires up to five times throughout the study about their health status, eating habits and sleep. They also provided blood samples. 

Death records was obtained via NHS data. After an average 22-year follow-up period, 2,361 deaths were reported. 

The above shows the survival curve for meal timing clusters and mortality

On average, participants reported their average times for breakfast, lunch and dinner were 8:22am, 12:38pm and 5:51pm, respectively. 

Participants on average had breakfast 31 minutes after walking up and dinner 5.4 hours before going to bed. 

Each additional decade of aging delayed breakfast an extra three minutes and dinner by four minutes. 

This means as adults aged, their mealtimes got progressively later.  

The team found people who ate breakfast later were more likely to have fatigue, oral health issues, depression and anxiety. 

Meanwhile, those who sat down to dinner later in the day were more likely to have oral health issues than those who ate earlier. 

This could be because eating at different times may influence the amount of bacteria and acid in the mouth, weakening gums and teeth.  

Additionally, the 10-year survival rate for ‘early eaters’ was 89.5 percent compared to 87 percent for ‘late eaters,’ so late eaters had a nearly three percent greater risk of death within 10 years. 

And each additional hour delay in breakfast was also associated with an eight percent increased risk of death after adjusting for lifestyle factors like sleep, socioeconomic status, smoking and alcohol consumption.  

Dashti said: ‘Up until now, we had a limited insight into how the timing of meals evolves later in life and how this shift relates to overall health and longevity.

‘Our findings help fill that gap by showing that later meal timing, especially delayed breakfast, is tied to both health challenges and increased mortality risk in older adults. 

‘These results add new meaning to the saying that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” especially for older individuals.’

The researchers are unsure why exactly later mealtimes led to worse health outcomes, though they suggested eating late might desynchronize peripheral circadian clocks, which regulate organs like the liver and gut, from the central circadian clock in the brain. 

This might inhibit metabolism and glucose (blood sugar) control, leading to conditions like obesity and diabetes. 

Eating later in the day is also often associated with later sleep schedules, which have been shown to increase the risk of depression and anxiety.

There were several limitations to the study, including a relatively small sample size and unclear data on specific foods eaten and snacking habits. Specific causes of death were also unclear.