The Proceedings of the Nutrition SocietyOct 26, 2017

Body clocks, diet, and their links to lifespan in city living

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 4, 2026

Abstract

By 2030, the population aged 65 years or older is expected to reach 21%.

Energy restriction, limiting daily intake to 60-70%, may extend lifespan and delay age-related diseases.
Intermittent fasting, allowing unrestricted food every other day, is associated with similar longevity benefits.
Resetting the circadian clock through timed feeding could enhance well-being in the elderly.
Circadian rhythms play a role in regulating metabolism and may influence longevity.
Understanding circadian regulation could lead to new therapies aimed at improving health in older adults.

Simplified

Presently, about 12% of the population is 65 years or older and by the year 2030 that figure is expected to reach 21%. In order to promote the well-being of the elderly and to reduce the costs associated with health care demands, increased longevity should be accompanied by ageing attenuation. Energy restriction, which limits the amount of energy consumed to 60-70% of the daily intake, and intermittent fasting, which allows the food to be available ad libitum every other day, extend the life span of mammals and prevent or delay the onset of major age-related diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cataracts. Recently, we have shown that well-being can be achieved by resetting of the circadian clock and induction of robust catabolic circadian rhythms via timed feeding. In addition, the clock mechanism regulates metabolism and major metabolic proteins are key factors in the core clock mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to increase our understanding of circadian regulation over metabolism and longevity and to design new therapies based on this regulation. This review will explore the present data in the field of circadian rhythms, ageing and metabolism.

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Body clocks, diet, and their links to lifespan in city living

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