The Surprising Danger of Skipping Breakfast

You know that breakfast has plenty of benefits: It boosts your energy, curbs your midday cravings, and helps keep you at a healthy weight. But if you’re still skipping the first meal of the day, there’s another perk you’re passing up: Missing even one breakfast each week increases your risk of type 2 diabetes by 20 percent, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers from the Harvard University School of Public Health analyzed the eating habits and health outcomes of 46,289 women over the course of six years. At the end of the study, they found that women who skipped breakfast here and there had a 20 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than those who ate it on a daily basis. The risk is even higher for full-time working women who missed their morning meal sometimes: 54 percent. The importance of a daily breakfast held up after the researchers adjusted the results to account for the effects of age, BMI, carbohydrate consumption, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, and working status.

Another study of more than 3,000 men and women published in Diabetes Care found that eating breakfast frequently also lowers the risk of obesity and high blood pressure. That same University of Minnesota study revealed that only 35 percent of participants actually ate a meal every morning, though.

Why is eating breakfast so important to your health? Turns out, it’s all in the timing. “When you go to bed, your insulin level is flat—not too low, not too high,” says lead study author Rania Mekary, PhD, research associate at the Harvard University School of Public Health in the department of nutrition. When you don’t ‘break the fast’ in the morning, your insulin level drops—so when you have lunch later in the day, it’s more likely to spike, then crash again.

Over time, this constant flux in insulin levels can cause your body to build up an insulin resistance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. Fortunately, you can cut your risk significantly by sticking to a daily breakfast schedule. You should aim to eat within an hour or two of waking up, says Mekary—and coffee or tea alone won’t cut it.

While even unhealthy breakfasts were better for lowering diabetes risk than no breakfast at all, researchers found the best outcomes resulted from daily breakfasts that were low in sugar and high in nutrients like fiber and protein.

Need some morning meal motivation? Try one (or more) of these tasty, healthful recipes:

Oats-Almond Mixed Berry Crisp

Photo: Kana Okada

Fruit and Spice-Cut Oatmeal

Photo: Mitch Mandel

Minted Honey-Lime Fruit Salad

Photo: Mitch Mandel

Double Tomato and Turkey Bacon Omelette

Photo: Mitch Mandel

Soy Milk Berry Smoothie

Photo: Kurt Wilson

photo (top): Lifesize/Thinkstock

More from Women’s Health:
10 Healthy Breakfast Recipes
Tasty Breakfast Treats
Oatmeal Recipes That Will Change Your Life Before 8 am

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How Sweet is Your Breakfast?

A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but it also may be lurking in your cereal bowl—bad news for your health, weight, and energy levels. Fortunately, Nestle and General Mills have announced a new initiative to decrease the sugar and salt content in many of their cereals.

The cuts will affect products the brands market outside North America, including 20 cereal brands popular with children and teenagers, according to Reuters. The goal is to aim for average reductions of 24 percent in sugar and 12 percent in sodium by 2015. (We can only hope this trend makes its way across the pond and infiltrates the US cereal aisle soon.)

Lowering the sugar levels in your breakfast isn’t just great for your waist line, it’s also good for productivity, says Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., co-author of The Calendar Diet: A Month By Month Guide to Losing Weight While Living Your Life. “When you have a sugar-packed breakfast, you’ll likely be in a slump all day,” she says. Because sugar is so easy to digest, the effects don’t last very long, she explains.

“The ideal breakfast food has a little bit of protein to keep you alert, complex carbs for energy, and a little healthy fat and fiber to keep you full,” she says. You don’t have toss your cereal boxes, though. Look for options with whole grains that have less than 4g of sugar per serving, she says. Then top off your bowl with 1 percent or fat-free milk, or try your cereal with plain non-fat yogurt.

Want something more exciting? Try her other (super yummy!) suggestions:

A New Take on Toast
Sprouted-grain toast like Ezekiel bread
Spread with nut butter or sunflower-seed butter
Top with sliced pears

Breakfast Bruschetta
Whole wheat English muffin
Spread with orange marmalade and low-fat ricotta cheese
Top with sliced strawberries and bananas

For even more delicious morning meals, check out these 10 super-fast breakfast recipes.

More from WH:
Easy, Speedy Breakfasts
Oatmeal Recipes That Will Change Your Life
5 Healthy Muffin Mixes

Look Better Naked: Buy the book to learn how to look (and feel!) your very best.

 

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