Dinner Time

Everyone is focused on what they eat for health and longevity. However, a new study took a look at what time some of the oldest people in the world eat. It ends up that healthy longevity isn’t just about what, but also about when. When it comes to healthy longevity, it’s all in the timing. What time is your dinner time?

The study looked at nonagenarians and centenarians in L’Aquila, a province in Abruzzo, Italy. It was found that study participants ate dinner around 7:15 in the evening. While it has long been known that eating early has health benefits, those benefits have never directly been linked to longevity. Now it has.

The Facts

If you’ve been eating late evening meals, you might want to change your lifestyle. Consider this:

• You’ll sleep better if you eat an early dinner. By creating a gap of several hours between eating and sleeping, digestion has had a significant head start. That means that it won’t need to work while you are sleeping and will also have time to rest. This allows for better sleep and, in the long run, also leads to more efficient digestion.
• You’ll have better weight management. Again, by creating a substantial gap between your dinner and your breakfast, intermittent fasting is an inevitable result. When fasting the body meets its energy needs by using stored body fat. Fasting also means your metabolism is triggered, you build a stronger immune system, and have improved cellular regeneration and repair.
• You’ll have less of a risk of a heart attack than if you eat dinner late. By eating a minimum of 3 hours before bedtime you allow your blood pressure to naturally reduce by nearly 10%. By eating later, blood pressure remains high creating a greater chance of a heart attack.

And these are just a few of the benefits of eating early.

So when it comes to planning your healthy menu, don’t forget to consider the time you serve along with what you serve. The science says dinner time matters!