As we age, both the type and amount of food we consume tend to change. However, the relationship between mealtimes and our health remains largely unclear. Researchers at Mass General Brigham and their collaborators studied changes in meal times among older adults and found that meal times gradually shift with age. They also identified characteristics that may contribute to these shifts and uncovered certain patterns associated with earlier death. The results were published in Communications Medicine.

How Older Adults’ Eating Times Can Provide Insight Into Their Health

“Our research suggests that changes in older adults’ eating habits, particularly the timing of breakfast, could serve as an easily monitored indicator of their overall health status. Patients and physicians may be able to use shifts in eating habits as an early warning sign to investigate underlying physical and mental health issues,” said lead author Hassan Dashti, PhD, RD, a nutritionist and circadian biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health system. “In addition, encouraging older adults to eat at regular times could become part of a broader strategy to promote healthy aging and longevity.”

Dashti and his colleagues—including senior author Altug Didikoglu, MSc, PhD, from the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey—examined important aspects of meal times that are relevant to aging populations to determine whether certain patterns might signal or even influence health outcomes later in life. The research team analyzed data, including blood samples, from 2,945 community-dwelling adults aged 42 to 94 in the United Kingdom who were followed for more than 20 years. They found that as older adults age, they tend to eat breakfast and dinner later, while at the same time the time window in which they eat each day shortens overall.

Eating breakfast later was consistently associated with physical and mental health problems such as depression, fatigue, and oral complaints. Difficulties in preparing meals and poorer sleep were also associated with later meal times. Notably, later breakfast was associated with an increased risk of mortality during the follow-up period. Individuals genetically predisposed to traits associated with the “night owl” type (who prefer later bedtimes and wake-up times) tended to eat their meals at later times.

Late Breakfast and the Dangers

“Until now, we had limited insight into how meal times change in later life and how this shift is related to overall health and longevity,” said Dashti. “Our findings help fill this gap by showing that later meal times, especially a later breakfast, are associated with both health problems and an increased risk of mortality in older adults. These findings give new meaning to the saying ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ especially for older adults.” Dashti noted that this has important implications as time-restricted eating and intermittent fasting become increasingly popular, as the health effects of shifting meal times may differ significantly in older adults compared to younger adults.