Skipping Breakfast Linked to Heart Disease

Do you eat breakfast? Often touted as the most important meal of the day, breakfast plays a key role in energy levels, metabolism and overall health. While skipping breakfast once or twice a week probably won't have any noticeable adverse effects on your health, skipping it on a regular basis can certainly take its toll. In fact, there's new evidence indicating that 

A study conducted by researchers from the heart research institute CNIC found that people who skip breakfast are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than their breakfast-eating counterparts. For the study, researchers analyzed the diets of more than 4,000 middle-aged men and women, none of whom had cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the study. Researchers checked a variety of health markers, including body mass index, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, smoking status, physical activity, whether they are breakfast, and more. Next, researchers used imaging to track the stages of atherosclerosis in participants, a condition that's directly linked to heart disease.

So, what did they discover? Researchers found that 75% of participants who skipped breakfast developed atherosclerosis. This is important because atherosclerosis is characterized by hardening and narrowing of the arteries. There's no cure for it, and it usually becomes progressively worse over time. In the later stages, atherosclerosis can cause stroke and other forms of cardiovascular disease; therefore, it's essential for individuals to take a proactive approach towards protecting their heart, and arteries, from disease.

Researchers note, however, that participants who skipped breakfast also had other markers that could increase their risk of cardiovascular disease. For instance, these participants often ate lunch and dinner late in the day and didn't exercise as much as they should have. Based on this information, researchers believe that skipping breakfast isn't necessarily the problem. Rather, it's what you eat afterwards that matters most.

"People who skip breakfast, not only do they eat late and in an odd fashion, but [they also] have a poor lifestyle,” said study author and researcher Valentin Fuster. "Skipping breakfast in the morning by itself is not the problem; the problem is what you eat afterwards,” he added.

This doesn't necessarily mean that eating a breakfast has no health benefit. On the contrary, breakfast is important for a number of reasons. If you don't eat breakfast, your blood sugar levels may crash, your metabolism may drop and other changes may occur. So, make it a point to consume a healthy and nutritious breakfast every day.

This study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.