Why Breakfast Should Not Be Skipped?

Breakfast is the first meal and also the most important meal of the day. Studies did unveil that people who skip breakfast might have problems with to concentration, metabolism, weight, and even diabetes.

A study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health found that men who skip breakfast might face a higher risk of heart attack or deadly heart disease. Their findings were published on July 23, 2013 in the American Heart Disease journal ‘Circulation’.

The researchers assessed in 1992 the eating habits, including breakfast, of 26,902 American men aged between 45 and 82 from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. These men were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

During 16 years of follow-up, 1527 cases of coronary heart disease were diagnosed. After adjustment of demographic, diet, lifestyle, and other coronary heart disease risk factors, it was found that men who skipped breakfast had a 27 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease, compared with men who did not.

Men who did not eat breakfast were found to be on the younger side and more likely to be smokers, employed full time, unmarried, less physically active and drunk more alcohol. These men also did not make up for the lack of food later.

In the prevailing highly competitive environment, people can easily skip breakfast, as they have to rush to work.

But the findings suggested that skipping breakfast might have a significant impact on their health: it could lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes that might in turn lead to a heart attack over time. 

While 97 percent of men in the study were white and were of European descent, the researchers argued that the results should apply to those of other backgrounds as well. 

Nevertheless, a direct cause and effect relationship between breakfast and health cannot be proven by the study. Though the researchers had taken certain lifestyle factors into account, it could be because of people who take time to have a regular breakfast also tend to have healthier lifestyles.