*New research spanning three decades suggests that the time older adults eat breakfast may influence longevity.
Conducted by an international team led by Dr. Hassan Dashti of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the research tracked nearly 3,000 participants aged 42 to 94, utilizing data from the University of Manchester. The findings, published in Communications Medicine, suggest that delaying breakfast could be associated with an increased risk of mortality, Fox 4 reports.
“For example, depression and fatigue may reduce appetite or slow down morning routines, while dental or chewing problems can make eating uncomfortable, leading people to postpone breakfast,” Dashti explained to Everyday Health.
The study analyzed meal times, genetics, health conditions, and mortality rates over a 22-year follow-up period, during which 2,361 deaths were recorded. Researchers found that with each decade of aging, breakfast was delayed by approximately eight minutes and dinner by four minutes, resulting in a narrower eating window. Notably, every additional hour of delay in breakfast time was linked to a higher mortality risk. The data highlighted a 10-year survival rate of 89.5% for early eaters compared to 86.7% for those who ate later, a difference Dr. Dashti described as “statistically significant, but modest.”
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The researchers observed that later meal timing often coincided with physical or psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, fatigue, and oral health issues. “Our findings suggest that later meal timing, especially breakfast, could serve as a simple marker of health in older adults and may guide future strategies for healthy aging,” the study authors wrote.
“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,” Dashti said. “These results add new meaning to the saying that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ especially for older individuals.”
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