The first thing to know about longevity expert, Dr Saranya Wyles is that she’s got a lot on her plate. Not just an expert in cellular ageing and regenerative medicine at the Mayo Clinic, she’s also a mother with a busy schedule outside of work. Naturally, this means frequently asking herself the same question we all grapple with: what’s the quickest, healthiest thing I can make for dinner? “I don’t cook a full dinner every night; real life just doesn’t allow for it,” she tells Vogue. “But I do try to prioritise consistency over perfection.”
Consistency is the reason she has a few golden rules, like eating together as a family at least three times a week. “Sunday dinners are non-negotiable as it’s our time to reflect and rest,” she says. Eating dinner at the same time each day is another of her good health tenets. “We try to eat our evening meal early, ideally before 6pm.” On Sundays, this comes forward to 4:30pm.
“Earlier meal times are better aligned with our natural circadian rhythm and, therefore, our metabolic health.” Yes, being too hungry before bed can disrupt sleep, she says, but so can being overly full and asking your body to get to work on digesting food when it should be trying to rest. “Longevity is about sustainable habits, things you can do consistently, not extremes,” she concludes.
How does your circadian rhythm impact digestion?
Your circadian rhythm is an internal biological cycle that occurs across 24 hours. It’s regulated by exposure to daylight and is responsible for releasing the right hormones at the right times, as well as maintaining sleep quality and mood stability. One of these hormones, cortisol (also known as the stress hormone) is controlled by your circadian rhythm and peaks in the morning to wake you up, gradually declining throughout the day. Eating in line with this rhythm makes sense, says Hannah Alderson, a hormone-specialised nutritionist and the author of Everything I Know About Hormones.
“Cortisol follows a predictable circadian pattern across the day,” Alderson says. “Eating earlier supports this natural rhythm, whereas late-night eating can send conflicting signals to the brain and peripheral clocks in organs such as the liver and gut. This type of fasting works with that rise and fall, rather than asking your body to digest heavy meals late at night when cortisol, insulin sensitivity and gut motility are meant to be winding down.”
To make healthy, early dinners a reality, Wyles has a simple, effective strategy: modular dinners. This means prepping each meal’s components over the weekend and then assembling them on weeknights. “The idea is that everyone at home can then prepare a dish in minutes, customising it to what they fancy.”
Each week, Wyles tends to prep:
- Pre-cut vegetables such as carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and celery.
- Fresh fruits like strawberries and blueberries as sides or toppings.
- Proteins such as chicken or tofu.
- Whole grains such as quinoa.
