Breakfast is now known as the most important meal of the day. New research is once again proving that saying true.
A new study, published in Public Health Nutrition, found adolescents who ate a poor breakfast had a higher risk of having a metabolic syndrome 27 years later, when compared to counterparts who ate a more substantial breakfast.
Metabolic syndrome groups together the risk factors for cardiovascular disorders, such as belly fat, high levels of harmful triglycerides, low levels of good (HDL) cholesterol, high blood pressure and high fasting blood glucose levels.
“Further studies are required for us to be able to understand the mechanisms involved in the connection between poor breakfast and metabolic syndrome, but our results and those of several previous studies suggest that a poor breakfast can have a negative effect on blood sugar regulation,” said the study’s main author Maria Wennberg in a press release.
In 1981, researchers asked all of the students in the 9th grade at schools in the Swedish town of Luleå to answer questions about what they ate for breakfast.
They then followed up with the same group 27 years later. At that time, survey respondents were asked to undergo a health check for the presence of metabolic syndrome.
Researchers discovered the young people who neglected to eat breakfast or ate a poor breakfast had a 68 percent higher incidence of metabolic syndrome as adults, compared to counterparts who had eaten a healthier breakfast.
The risk factors that were most clearly linked with poor breakfast in youth, noted researchers, were abdominal obesity and high levels of fasting blood glucose levels.
