Eating breakfast may protect against cardiovascular disease
Adults who skip breakfast are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and have greater rates of all-cause mortality than those who typically eat a morning meal, according to findings published in Clinical Nutrition.
“Though breakfast is commonly considered to be the most important meal of the day, many people skip it,” Weiyu Teng, of the department of neurology at the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, China, and colleagues wrote. “Skipping breakfast may set up a series of health problems.”
In a meta-analysis, Teng and colleagues assessed the relative risk for CVD and all-cause mortality among 221,732 adults aged at least 38 years from seven cohort studies. The researchers used data from studies that evaluated the associations between eating or not eating breakfast and CVD or all-cause mortality. However, the researchers noted that participants self-reported whether they ate breakfast or not, and the content of the meals was not defined in most studies. The nutritional makeup of breakfast was also unavailable.
“We only focused on the effect of skipping breakfast in this meta-analysis; however, what to eat for this meal was ignored,” the researchers wrote. “Different food and beverages, such as cereals, red meat, eggs, milk and coffee, may have different effects. We cannot provide a best plan for what and how much to eat for breakfast.”
The researchers found that CVD risk was 22% greater (RR = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.1-1.35) and all-cause mortality risk was 25% greater (RR = 1.25; 95% CI, 1.11-1.4) among participants who did not eat breakfast vs. those who did, according to a pooled random-effects model.
“The results of this meta-analysis showed that skipping breakfast can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality,” the researchers wrote. “Eating breakfast regularly may promote cardiovascular health and decrease all-cause mortality.” – by Phil Neuffer
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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