Food and Agricultural Immunology

Time of Nutrition: Insights on Chrononutrition

Chrononutrition is an emerging field that explores how the timing, frequency, and distribution of food intake interact with the body's circadian rhythms to influence physiological processes, metabolic health, and immune function. Beyond the quantity and quality of nutrients consumed, accumulating evidence suggests that when people eat can significantly affect nutrient metabolism, hormonal regulation, gut microbiota composition, inflammatory responses, and overall health outcomes. The synchronization of dietary patterns with endogenous biological clocks has become increasingly relevant in the context of modern lifestyles characterized by irregular meal schedules, shift work, sleep disruption, and prolonged eating windows. Advances in nutritional science, chronobiology, immunology, and systems biology have expanded our understanding of the molecular mechanisms linking meal timing to health and disease. This Article Collection aims to bring together interdisciplinary research that advances the science of chrononutrition across experimental, clinical, translational, and population-based settings, with particular emphasis on nutrition–immune interactions.

Understanding the relationship between meal timing and biological rhythms has important implications for disease prevention, personalized nutrition, and public health. Disruption of circadian rhythms has been associated with metabolic disorders, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, impaired immune responses, and altered gut microbial ecology. Emerging evidence indicates that chrononutrition-based interventions, including time-restricted eating, optimized meal timing, and circadian-aligned dietary strategies, may improve metabolic resilience, reduce inflammatory burden, and enhance immune competence. Despite rapid advances, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding underlying mechanisms, population-specific responses, long-term efficacy, and practical implementation across diverse dietary patterns and cultural settings. This collection welcomes original research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and perspectives that address molecular mechanisms, clinical interventions, dietary biomarkers, microbiome interactions, nutritional immunology, precision nutrition, and health outcomes related to chrononutrition. By integrating insights across disciplines, the collection seeks to foster innovation and support evidence-based nutritional strategies that improve human health throughout the lifespan.

This Article Collection welcomes high-quality contributions that examine the interplay between chrononutrition, food components, and immune function across basic, translational, clinical, and population-based research. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• The effects of meal timing and eating patterns on innate and adaptive immunity
• Circadian regulation of inflammatory pathways; diet–microbiota–immune interactions
• Bioactive food compounds and functional foods in circadian health
• Nutritional modulation of immune responses in metabolic diseases
• Chrononutrition in aging, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions
• Biomarkers of circadian and immune function; precision nutrition approaches
• The impact of shift work, sleep disruption, and lifestyle factors on nutrition-related immune outcomes.

Studies employing omics technologies, systems biology, and innovative analytical approaches are particularly encouraged. The Article Collection welcomes original research articles, review articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and brief communications that provide novel mechanistic insights or clinically relevant evidence aligned with the scope of Food and Agricultural Immunology.

Keywords: Chrononutrition, Circadian Rhythms, Nutritional Immunology, Meal Timing, Gut Microbiota

Dr. Ludovica Verde, PhD, is a registered dietitian and researcher, with expertise in clinical nutrition, obesity, diabetes, chrononutrition, and metabolic diseases. She has conducted international research at Maastricht University Medical Center+ (The Netherlands) and the University of Arizona Health Sciences (USA), and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Dr. Verde is actively involved in several national and international scientific societies, contributing to research, education, and evidence-based clinical nutrition. Here is the link to his ORCID page:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4583-8283.

Disclosure statement: The Guest Advisor declares no conflict of interest.

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer-review as part of our standard editorial process; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope  and author submission instructions  prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is April 30th, 2027.

Please contact Ruby Ru at [email protected]  with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

To submit your papers to this Article Collection, please:

1. Check "yes" for the question, "Are you submitting your paper for a specific special issue or article collection?"
2. Select the relevant Article Collection from the drop-down menu under the question, "Special Issue or Article Collection Name."