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03.28.03
Morning meals may mean better health
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hat
did you eat for breakfast today? It turns out the answer to that question
may be more important than we knew, according to a study by Mark
Pereira, PhD, research associate in Endocrinology, and
David Ludwig, MD, director of the Optimum
Weight for Life clinic. They found that people who eat breakfast are
significantly less likely to be obese and diabetic than those who don’t.
Pereira and Ludwig reported their findings at an American Heart Association conference on cardiovascular disease in March.
They found that obesity and insulin resistance syndrome rates were 35 to 50 percent lower among people who ate breakfast every day compared to those who frequently skipped it.
“Our results suggest that breakfast may really be the most important meal of the day,” says Pereira, lead author of the study. “It appears that it may play an important role in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
Pereira says eating breakfast might have beneficial effects on appetite, insulin resistance and energy metabolism.
“Just the habit of filling your belly in the morning might help people control their hunger throughout the day so they might be less likely to overeat,” he says. “Or, there might be a hormonal basis for some of the effects because the hormone insulin controls blood sugar, and blood sugar level is related to how hungry or energetic a person feels.”
Insulin resistance syndrome is a metabolic disorder characterized by the combination of several factors such as obesity, high abdominal body fat, high blood pressure, and high fasting levels of blood sugar or the hormone insulin, which helps the body store glucose properly. The syndrome also often includes problems in blood fat metabolism such as high levels of triglycerides and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL – the “good” cholesterol). Although people with insulin resistance syndrome may not yet have diabetes, their bodies do not use glucose efficiently, and those with the condition are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The risk reduction for obesity and insulin resistance was consistent for white men and women and for black men, but not for black women, a difference the researchers are continuing to study, says Pereira.
Overall, about 47 percent of whites and 22 percent of blacks reported daily breakfast consumption. “Dietary patterns are known to differ widely, probably due to cultural differences, by race and ethnicity and even between men and women,” he says. The subjects included 1,198 black and 1,633 white participants whose breakfast habits and risk factors for heart disease were assessed over an eight-year period (1992-2000). Participants were age 25 to 37 in 1992.
The study results accounted for risk factors such as smoking, low physical activity, alcohol use and demographic factors. This large, prospective study of young adults from two different racial groups makes a unique contribution to the literature, says Pereira, but it’s limited because researchers can’t determine cause and effect from a self-reporting study.
Now that the researchers have clear evidence that breakfast is important, he says, “We have started looking at what people are eating when they eat breakfast. We need to do more research.”
What’s your perfect breakfast? Tell us at news@tch.harvard.edu.
Related links:
Heard in the halls: What's your
perfect breakfast?
http://www.childrenshospital.org/chnews/03-28-03/halls.html
Healthy
‘briefcase breakfasts’ (MSNBC)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/888295.asp?0si=-
Ready,
set, breakfast! (KidsHealth.org)
http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/breakfast.html