We heard yesterday about the research that found that skipping breakfast can lead to weight loss (and lots of you certainly had some opinions about that—love!), so it's kind of funny that another study about skipping breakfast surfaced today...and these results aren't quite so, uh, positive.
The study, which was published in the most recent issue of the journal Circulation, found that, compared with men (ages 45 to 82) who ate breakfast regularly, those who skipped the morning meal had a 27 percent increased risk of having a heart attack or developing coronary artery disease.
The researchers acknowledge that the research was performed solely on older men, but they believe the results probably apply to a wide variety of people—and note that it was an observational study and can't, at this point, prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
But researchers think that people who skip breakfast may eat "calorically dense" meals later in the day and into the night—meaning that there may be fewer hours for bodies to process foods, leading to higher blood sugar levels and more intense insulin spikes. The process may lead to the development of coronary artery disease.
It's not clear, though, what the participants actually ate for breakfast—sausage? Pancakes? Bran cereal?—so it remains to be seen whether skipping breakfast is worse for you than eating fatty, caloric foods for breakfast.
Well, who knew breakfast could be so controversial? And what do you think of this study?