Research has revealed that the timing of meals in later life may significantly influence overall health and longevity. Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, headed by Hassan Dashti, examined long-term changes in meal patterns among older adults and identified important links with health outcomes, genetics, and mortality.
Meal Timing in Later Life Linked to Health Outcomes and Longevity
Background
The study, published on 4 September 2025 in Communications Medicine, followed nearly 3000 community-dwelling adults in the United Kingdom, aged 42 to 94 years, over more than two decades. It sought to understand how the timing of meal shifts with age and how these shifts relate to well-being or health outcomes and life expectancy.
Data were collected through dietary surveys, health assessments, and biological samples. Researchers recorded when participants ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as the total daily eating window. Blood samples were used to study genetic profiles, particularly those influencing circadian rhythm, including predispositions to morningness or eveningness.
Key Findings
The analysis showed that with age, individuals generally delayed both breakfast and dinner while also narrowing their daily eating window. These gradual shifts in eating schedules were further studied in relation to mental and physical health conditions, functional difficulties, and long-term mortality risk. The following are specific findings:
• Delayed Eating Patterns with Age: Older adults tended to eat breakfast and dinner later, with their overall eating window compressed into fewer hours. This demonstrated that meal timing naturally shifts during aging. Note that this shift specifically affects the distribution of food intake throughout the day.
• Later Breakfast Associated with Poor Health: Those who consistently ate breakfast later showed higher rates of depression, fatigue, and oral health problems. They also reported greater difficulty in preparing meals and lower quality sleep, suggesting wide-ranging implications for physical and mental well-being.
• Notable Increase in Mortality Risk: Habitual late breakfast eaters were more likely to experience higher mortality during the follow-up period. This suggests that delayed morning eating may serve as a marker or indicator of underlying health deterioration or vulnerability among aging populations.
• Genetic Link with Night Owl Chronotype: Participants with genetic profiles associated with being night owls, meaning delayed sleep and wake cycles, were more likely to eat later meals. This finding connects biological predisposition with observed dietary timing habits in older adulthood or aging adults.
Implications
Researchers concluded that monitoring meal timing, particularly breakfast, could act as a simple and effective tool to detect early signs of declining health. Regular and earlier meal times, especially consistent breakfast consumption habits, may protect against poor health outcomes and could potentially extend life expectancy among older adults.
Note that the results also challenge certain popular dietary approaches. Intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating, often recommended for younger or middle-aged adults, may have unintended costs for elderly populations, where delayed meals are linked to greater vulnerability and risk. Timing strategies may therefore require age-specific adaptation.
Meal timing trajectories provide valuable indicators of well-being. For clinicians and caregivers, encouraging consistency in mealtimes could be a straightforward intervention. For individuals, maintaining earlier eating patterns, particularly breakfast, may represent a practical step toward healthier aging and improved longevity outcomes.
FURTHER READING AND REFERENCE
- Dashti, H. S., Liu, C., Deng, H., Sharma, A., Payton, A., Maharani, A., and Didikoglu, A. 2025. “Meal Timing Trajectories in Older Adults and Their Associations with Morbidity, Genetic Profiles, and Mortality.” Communications Medicine. 5(1). DOI: 1038/s43856-025-01035-x