When you eat may matter as much as what you eat for longevity and heart health - medicalxpress

Starting the day's eating later was linked to a progressively higher risk of death from heart disease. Credit: Pexels.

What we eat plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A well-balanced meal rich in essential micronutrients not only fuels the body but may also help protect against metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. There is another question worth asking: Does when we eat matter just as much as what we eat?

A recent study explored this question in greater depth by examining whether meal timing and the length of our daily eating window are associated with mortality risk and life expectancy among U.S. adults.

Data tracking more than 30,000 adults age 40 and older revealed that when we eat our first and last meals may be linked to our risk of death and overall life expectancy. Starting the day with a later first meal was associated with a progressively higher risk of death from any cause and cardiovascular disease. People whose first meal was after noon had a 29% higher risk of death from any cause compared with those who ate their first meal between 7 and 8 a.m.

For the last meal, the lowest risk was observed around 7–8 p.m., and the highest risk was observed among those who ate past midnight.

The findings are published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Meals on the clock

We have a decent understanding of the circadian rhythm—the body's internal clock, synced to the 24-hour cycle, that regulates not just sleep but essential biological functions, from hormone release to cellular repair. Scientists are now digging deeper into its links with food in a field of research called chrononutrition—the study of how meal timing interacts with our body's circadian rhythms to influence health, metabolism and weight regulation. 

Dose-response associations between the times of the first and last meal and all-cause and CVD mortality. Credit: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41430-026-01796-1

This is gaining traction because modern lifestyles have people deviating from age-old eating habits. Today, studies show that almost 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. skip breakfast, and nearly 6 in 10 eat late at night.

While researchers have found that skipping breakfast or eating late could disrupt our internal body clocks and harm metabolic health, it remained unclear whether the timing of the first and last meal matters for long-term survival and risk of heart conditions.

Tracking meals and mortality

To find the link between meal timing and survival, the researchers looked at data from 31,044 American adults age 40 and older who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018.

Instead of asking participants to remember when they ate, researchers used in-person 24-hour dietary logs to capture meal timing as it happened. They then linked these records to the National Death Index and followed participants through Dec. 31, 2019. Over an average follow-up period of 8.6 years, they recorded deaths from all causes and those attributed to heart disease and stroke.

Later breakfasts, later risks

Using a first meal between 7 and 8 a.m. as the ideal baseline, the researchers found that having that first meal between 8 and 10 a.m. was linked to a 10% higher risk of death from any cause. Waiting until 10 a.m. to noon, that risk climbed to 19%, while stroke-related deaths nearly doubled, rising 59%. Skipping breakfast altogether and waiting until after noon, overall death risk rose to 29%, with heart disease deaths jumping to 43%.

When it came to dinner, eating too early or too late came with a cost. Eating before 7 p.m. was tied to a 13% higher risk of death, while eating too late, past midnight, proved far more dangerous, driving overall mortality up by 27% and heart disease deaths up by 51%. The sweet spot was between 7 and 8 p.m.

Estimates of life expectancy from age 50 years onward among adults with different time of first or last meal. Credit: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41430-026-01796-1

Life expectancy also shifted

Among participants age 50 and older, compared with the baseline duration, having the first meal between 8 and 10 a.m. was associated with a 0.9-year reduction in life expectancy, while eating after noon was associated with 2.5 fewer years. For dinner, compared with the sweet spot, eating before 7 p.m. was associated with 1.2 fewer years of life expectancy, while eating after midnight was associated with 2.4 fewer years.

The researchers say that while the results point to potential links among meal timing, mortality and life expectancy, this was an observational study, so it cannot prove that meal timing causes earlier death. However, they encourage a broader approach to dietary health, in which optimal meal timing, alongside dietary quality, could be an important strategy for improving population health. 

by Sanjukta Mondal, Medical Xpress

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: When you eat may matter as much as what you eat for longevity and heart health