1.6 min. read
Over the past decade and a half, we’ve covered every angle you thought you could imagine about the ins and outs of breakfast. But a new one has come to my attention. Had it occurred to you that when you eat breakfast could be important?
An ultra-healthy breakfast plate combining fresh fruits and plain yogurt.
Just add some whole grain bread for a complete, balanced meal…
Researchers surveyed a big sample – more than 31,000 adults – to see if they could uncover any con-nection between the time of day they eat breakfast and their health and well being…
An optimal time…
They pinpointed an optimal time for the first meal of the day – one which set subjects up best to handle the morning ahead. And which apparently optimized their chances of living longer…
What they did
The team reviewed responses from 31,044 adults aged 40 years and older to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2018. The meal timing and the eating window were estimated by the subjects. Participants logged what they consumed and the times they ate, over a typical 24-hour period.
The team then tracked how many of those participants died over a median follow-up period of 8.6 years.
What they found
“They found that 7,129 people had died, including 2,259 from cardiovascular causes such as heart disease and stroke,” a Food & Wine story explains. “The researchers then compared [their] mortality risk based on when they ate their first and last meals of the day.”
The numbers confirmed what a vast majority of us already knew – or sensed, intuitively: eating breakfast between 7 am and 8 am yields the best results. But it also turned out to be a common factor among those survey subjects who lived longest.
And the earlier or later outside that crucial window a subject breakfasted, the worse their chances were for survival to a ripe old age.
Breakfast Chili and Corn Bread, topped with Eggs and Avocado slices: Just as nutritious
as – though a lot more dietarily extravagant than – the preceding Yogurt plate…
The takeaway
“Later first meals […] were associated with higher mortality risks and shorter life expectancy,” the survey concludes. “These findings suggest that meal timing may be a modifiable behavioral factor associated with mortality risk and life expectancy.”
My take
In plain English… The survey suggests that breakfast IS the most important meal of the day! In spite of other recent studies that challenge that ancient wisdom on other grounds.
~ Maggie J.