The debate over whether or not to eat breakfast just got a little more serious. Research has previously suggested that skipping morning meals may lead to weight gain and boost the risk for diabetes and high cholesterol. But a new study draws a straight line between forgoing breakfast and the development of dangerous plaque in the arteries.
The study, recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, involved 4000 healthy adults, ages 40 to 54, who recorded their meals over a two-week time period. The participants were split into three groups, based on the proportion of calories in their typical breakfast: less than 5 percent of their daily intake, between 5 and 20 percent of it, or more than 20 percent. The team also looked for links between the size (but not the content) of their morning meals and various cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors.
Some 69 percent of the participants ate a low-calorie breakfast—say coffee and toast—while 28 percent ate a heartier meal, it turned out. Just 3 percent skipped it altogether.
The results were striking: People who skipped or ate a light breakfast were much more likely to exhibit the beginnings of plaque in the arteries or atherosclerosis than those who ate a full breakfast. They also had a greater waist circumference and higher blood pressure, triglycerides (a particularly dangerous type of blood fat), fasting blood sugar and body mass index (BMI).
The study doesn’t prove that skipping breakfast leads to plaque build-up. In fact researchers found that those who missed the morning meal were also more likely to have other dubious health habits, such as smoking, poor food choices, and a greater use of alcohol. And the breakfast skippers tended to be overweight, raising the possibility that passing up breakfast was a weight-loss strategy. Still the findings stood even after researchers accounted for the effects of participants’ age, gender, tobacco and alcohol use, cholesterol levels and consumption of red meat and salt.
The data didn’t determine how skipping breakfast might lead to heart disease. In an accompanying editorial, investigators speculate that it might trigger hormonal imbalances or disrupt circadian rhythms that contribute to that outcome. Or skipping breakfast may lead to greater hunger and then overeating, particularly of unhealthy fare, later in the day.
What’s clear for now is that skipping breakfast is a marker of poor dietary and behavioral health that can lead to atherosclerosis in middle age, before clinical symptoms emerge. The take-home: Commit to a more substantial breakfast—one with whole grains, protein, healthy fats, and fiber—and take a look at other areas of your life that could use improvement, such as a lack of regular exercise or a smoking habit.
In the meantime, inflammation testing can help identify heart disease early, before it leads to a life-changing cardiovascular event. Tests of F2-Isoprostanes (F2-IsoPs), which signal oxidative stress often aggravated by poor lifestyle choices and oxidized LDL, which gauges damage due to “bad” LDL cholesterol, are good places to start. Together these steps can help to ensure a healthy heart and your overall well-being.