Reinforcing a healthy day-night rhythm in metabolism by nutrition in older people

We live in a 24-hour economy in which we use artificial lighting and digital screens, we sleep at varying time, and we have access to food 24 hours a day for 7 days a week. However, the human body is not naturally prepared for such a 24-hour culture. Our body has its own biological clock that is regulated, among other things, by the day and night cycle of the earth. This biological clock ensures that all kinds of processes in the body take place in a certain 24-hour rhythm. With aging and lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, it has been shown that our biological clock works less well and that our 24-hour behavior is no longer aligned with our internal clock, which can contribute to health problems.

For example, we previously showed that older participants who are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes burn fewer carbohydrates during the day. Even more importantly, unlike healthy young people, these older participants did not switch to fat burning at night. This switch from carbohydrate to fat burning is typical of the transition from the fed to the fasted state. This lack of metabolic rhythm is important because low metabolic flexibility is linked to the development of a variety of age-related health problems.

In the current project, we want to test whether taking a mixture of specific nutrients in the evening can bring the body into a more 'fasted state' during the night. We do this in a group of older people who are overweight and have impaired (muscle) health. In this way we hope to strengthen the 24-hour feeding-fasting cycle and thus help the biological clock to achieve a healthy 24-hour rhythm of metabolism. At the same time, we test whether certain age-related health problems are reduced by this approach.