Eating breakfast and dinner an hour earlier can impact health

A new study shows that people who eat for the first time at 9:00 a.m. are six per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than a person who tucks into breakfast at 8:00 a.m.

Eating after 9:00 p.m. was also linked with a 28 per cent higher risk of stroke compared to having supper before 8:00 p.m. - particularly in females.

However, the study - using data from over 103,000 French people - also revealed that a longer duration of "night-time fasting", the time between the last meal of one day and the first of the next, is linked to reduced risk of a stroke.

Dr Hassan Srour, of the French national institute for agricultural research, said: "These findings, which need to be replicated in other cohorts and through additional scientific studies with different designs, highlight a potential role for meal timing in preventing cardiovascular disease.

"They suggest that adopting the habit of eating earlier first and last meals with a longer period of night-time fasting could help to prevent the risk of cardiovascular disease."

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