Many people know what you eat can impact your heath but what about when you eat? Valter Longo, Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, suggests that one of the secrets to a longer and healthier life could lie in the timing of our meals.
He’s been advocating for heartier lunches and earlier dinners as part of this approach. One of his top tips involves a three-hour rule concerning your last meal of the day.
So this means you should aim to finish eating at least three hours before bedtime. For instance, if you’re someone who goes to sleep around 11pm, then your dinner should be done by 8pm.
In a conversation with GQ, he clarified: “If you push your dinner later and later, the message to your system is [that] you should still be active.” This guideline is a cornerstone of the time-restricted eating regimen, which falls under the umbrella of intermittent fasting.
People on time-restricted eating limit their daily food intake to a window of 12 hours or less. This practice gives the body ample time to fully digest the food and may even lead to a calorie deficit, aiding those looking to shed some weight.
Longo also pointed out that many of us have got our meal sizes the wrong way round, typically having a light breakfast and a heavy dinner. Although this can suit some individuals, he recommends that people experiencing certain symptoms should opt for a lighter dinner and instead indulge in a substantial lunch earlier on.
Explaining the impact of meal timing on health, he stated: “If you do have a bigger dinner, and you’re sleeping well, your cholesterol and blood pressure [are] fine, then you’re good. But if you’re sleeping poorly, and you have [health] problems, maybe you should move to having a bigger breakfast, a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner, which usually seems to be the healthiest [pattern] of all.”
Adam Collins, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Surrey, has been endorsing a longer interval between dinner and breakfast, aiming for around 12 hours. He detailed the benefits by saying: “You’re allowing your body to go into the more catabolic phase, where you’re shifting to oxidising fats. You’re training the body to do what it’s designed to do: burn carbs when you’re eating carbs, and then burn fat when you’re not.”
This approach can enhance metabolic health and support weight loss efforts and is in line with Valter’s guidance for a healthier lifestyle. These insights are a snippet from the specialist’s Daily Longevity Diet for Adults available on his site.
In addition to timing meals, other recommendations include following a primarily vegan diet with occasional fish, limiting protein, saturated fats, and sugar intake—with specific amounts varying according to age. Maximising your intake of good fats and complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains and vegetables, along with vitamin supplements and unprocessed ingredients where possible, are among his other suggestions.
As for specific foods that could help people live longer lives, Valter recommends consuming at least three tablespoons of olive oil a day and one ounce of nuts per day. Depending on your age and weight, the expert suggested potentially reducing to just two meals a day with two low-sugar snacks in between for younger individuals who tend to gain weight easily. Meanwhile, those over the age of 65 or of normal weight are advised to have all three meals a day along with one low-sugar snack that contains fewer than 100 calories.