Eating breakfast and avoiding midnight snacks could reduce men’s risk of a heart attack. That is the conclusion of a large epidemiological study of male health professionals (Circulation, online, July 22, 2013). More than 26,000 veterinarians, pharmacists, podiatrists, dentists, optometrists and osteopaths volunteered for this study in 1986. They were followed for almost 20 years. They filled out periodic comprehensive questionnaires on their eating habits, including skipping breakfast, and their health.
What Is the Effect of Skipping Breakfast?
The men who reported skipping breakfast were 27% more likely to develop heart disease during the study. Those who helped themselves to late-night snacks, like Dagwood Bumstead, were 55% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
Other analyses of this group of men has shown that those prone to skipping breakfast were more likely to gain weight and develop type 2 diabetes. Not eating in the morning is associated with higher cholesterol and reduced insulin sensitivity. The investigators controlled for factors such as employment, smoking, marital status, sleep and physical activity. The experts seem to agree with grandmothers that breakfast may be the most important meal of the day.
What to Make for Breakfast?
We offer a number of enticing, easy and healthy recipes for breakfast in our book, Recipes & Remedies From The People’s Pharmacy.
Update on Skipping Breakfast:
A number of more recent studies have considered the metabolic effects of skipping breakfast. One study compared 18 healthy volunteers to 18 individuals with diabetes (Diabetes Care, Nov. 2017). Eating breakfast changed gene expression. When the volunteers missed their morning meal, their glucose levels rose more steeply after lunch. A different study compared skipping breakfast and skipping dinner (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2017). While physical activity and insulin secretion were the same over the 24 hours in both instances, blood sugar levels were significantly higher after lunch when the participants had skipped their breakfast. In addition, a study of heart rate variability in 425 healthy volunteers found that skipping breakfast had a deleterious effect on heart rhythm (Acta Cardiologica, June 2017).
It does not appear that people who eat breakfast are slimmer (Nutrients, April 2017). Korean researchers report, however, that breakfast eaters have lower blood pressure (Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, Sep. 2016).
Revised 8/2/18
