Evidence suggests that weight gains and obesity is not caused by how much you eat, but instead by the types of foods you eat. Further, increasingly it is being shown that meal pattern behaviour play a large part in determining the future risk of obesity related condition. Many people mistakenly believe that by missing breakfast they will create a calorie deficit that will aid in weight loss. However, such thinking is flawed for two reasons. Firstly, studies show that those who do skip breakfast begin the day with a reduction in energy intake, but that subsequently they consume more energy for the rest of the day and this results in their final energy intake being greater than someone who consumed breakfast. Secondly, the belief hinges on the fact that forced energy restriction is effective at causing effective long term fat loss, something that has yet to be proven in the nutritional literature. Skipping breakfast then is associated with weight gain and other health problems, the latter including an adverse effect on insulin sensitivity.
This adverse negative effect on insulin sensitivity by breakfast skipping may explain the higher incidence of type 2 diabetes amongst those who irregularly consume breakfast compared to those who consume a morning meal regularly. For example, in one study1, researchers investigated the eating patterns of almost fifty thousand women who were free of disease, and followed them for a 6 year period. During this time, 1560 cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed in the women. When the data was analysed by the researchers, they found that those women who consumed breakfast irregularly (between 0 and 6 times per week) were at higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those women who consumed breakfast every morning. Amongst those who ate breakfast irregularly, a higher meal frequency was associated with an increase risk of type 2 diabetes. This supports the contention that breakfast skipper become hungrier later in the day and they therefore eat more frequently to assuage this hunger.
Therefore eating breakfast is an effective strategy for maintaining health, However, care must be taken when assigning cause and effect in studies such as this. Breakfast consumption is likely a marker for a more ordered and regimented life, and such individuals might be more likely to eat a healthy diet. In fact, it is likely that those interested in health would understand the importance of breakfast and incorporate this meal into their lives. It is therefore not possible to say that the breakfast was the cause of the reduced disease risk, because breakfast consumers are likely to eat a higher quality diet than those who eat irregularly. In fact the breakfast consumers smoked less, consumed more fibre, consumed less alcohol and were more physically active, and were also reported to have a healthier lifestyle by the researchers. However, breakfast consumption may have beneficial glycaemic effects, and as such this would have insulin sensitising effects. Therefore there are mechanisms by which breakfast consumption could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes
Dr Robert Barrington’s Nutritional Recommendation: Breakfast is possibly the most important meal of the day. Eating a high quality breakfast is an important way to maintain blood sugar levels and prevent hunger. Avoiding sugar laden and refined breakfast cereals is however important, as these are associated with disease.
RdB
