By Shannon Dawson

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Source: VioletaStoimenova / Getty Do you eat breakfast early or late? Is there really a best time to eat breakfast? It might seem like a small detail, but for older adults, the timing of that first meal could reveal important clues about overall health and even longevity. A new study has found that as people age, their meal times tend to shift later, and for older individuals, eating breakfast later in the day may be linked to various physical and mental health issues, including depression, fatigue, and oral health problems. Most strikingly, the study, published in Communications Medicine, Sept. 4, found that those who ate breakfast later were slightly more likely to die prematurely compared with those who ate earlier. “Older adults may be particularly affected by shifts in meal timing because of health challenges and lifestyle transitions,” said study author Hassan Dashti, PhD, RD, an assistant professor and research scientist specializing in nutrition, chronobiology, and genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, during an interview with Everyday Health. “Monitoring when older adults eat, particularly their breakfast time, may offer an easy-to-track marker of overall health and aging.” To explore the connection between meal timing and health outcomes later in life, Dr. Dashti and his team followed nearly 3,000 adults in the United Kingdom for an average of 22 years. Participants ranged in age from 42 to 94, with nearly three-quarters identifying as female and 83% not employed. The group was fairly evenly split between those who preferred early breakfasts and those who preferred late breakfasts. The early risers typically had breakfast around 8 a.m., while the late group ate closer to 9 a.m. Interestingly, as participants aged, they tended to delay meals. Each additional decade of life was associated with an 8-minute delay in breakfast and nearly a 4-minute delay in dinner. According to results, the 10-year survival rate was 89.5 percent for the early breakfast group, compared to 86.7 percent for those who ate later. However, the study could benefit from additional research to confirm that breakfast may indeed be the most important meal of the day, given its limitations. The findings were based on self-reported meal and sleep times, which are not always reliable. “The difference was statistically significant, but it was modest,” said Dr. Dashti. “These findings should be considered preliminary and interpreted with caution.” Could eating breakfast later be a sign of deeper health concerns? Researchers think so. Still, the data showed that each hour of delayed breakfast was associated with an 11% increase in the odds of dying during the study period. Late breakfast was also consistently linked to other physical and mental health concerns, such as depression, excessive sleepiness, dental issues, difficulty preparing meals, and poor sleep quality. The researchers also noted that individuals with a genetic tendency toward being “night owls”—those who naturally prefer later sleep and wake schedules—were more likely to eat meals at later times, the Harvard Gazette noted. These factors, Dr. Dashti suggests, might make it more difficult for older adults to eat in the morning. “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,” he says. “Because our study is observational, we can’t say for sure that these health issues cause later breakfasts, only that they often occur together.” Meal timing—technically called chrononutrition—can influence a range of biological functions, including sleep, metabolism, and circadian rhythms (the body’s internal clock). Given that older adults are often early risers, the researchers expected meal times to shift earlier with age. But they found the opposite: participants increasingly ate their meals later as they got older, particularly breakfast. “It’s counterintuitive from what we see in everyday living,” says Deborah Kado, MD, a geriatrics specialist and co-director of the Stanford Longevity Center in Palo Alto, California. “My observation at assisted living facilities is that older people want to eat earlier.” Dr. Kado, who was not involved in the study, believes more research is needed in larger, more diverse populations to determine whether later meal timing is truly an emerging trend among older adults. Still, she has noticed a pattern in her own practice: patients who eat later in the day often experience more cognitive challenges. SEE MORE: How To Eat For A Healthier Heart Kill The Noise: Techniques To Alleviate Stress And Find Your Calm