Chrononutrition: Timing of Food Intake and its Metabolic Consequences

The relationship between when we eat and how our bodies respond is emerging as one of the most clinically significant frontiers in nutritional science. Chrononutrition — the study of how meal timing aligns with, or disrupts, endogenous circadian clocks — has rapidly gained traction as evidence mounts linking mistimed eating to insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, obesity, and cardiometabolic disease. Growing research in molecular chronobiology has revealed that peripheral clocks in the liver, adipose tissue, and gut are highly sensitive to nutritional cues, making food timing a powerful modulator of whole-body metabolic homeostasis.This Research Topic invites original research, clinical trials, and reviews that advance our understanding of chrononutrition and its mechanistic and translational implications. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions bridging nutrition science, chronobiology, metabolic medicine, and epidemiology.Key themes of interest include:• Time-restricted eating (TRE) and cardiometabolic health — clinical and mechanistic evidence for early versus late eating windows and their effects on glucose regulation, lipid profiles, blood pressure, and body composition• Circadian clock genes and nutritional regulation — the role of core clock machinery (CLOCK, BMAL1, PER, CRY) in governing nutrient sensing, energy expenditure, and metabolic flexibility• Meal timing, glycaemic control, and insulin sensitivity — breakfast skipping, late-night eating, meal frequency, and postprandial metabolic responses• Chrononutrition and the gut microbiome — diurnal oscillations in microbial composition, meal timing-driven dysbiosis, and metabolite production• Chronotype, social jetlag, and dietary behaviour — interindividual variation in circadian preference, shift work, and real-world eating pattern misalignment as metabolic risk factors Topic editors: Eric Gumpricht, Falak Zeb Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82942/chrononutrition-timing-of-food-intake-and-its-metabolic-consequences