Eat breakfast to improve your heart health
A new study appears to confirm that when you eat is just as important for health as what and how much you eat.
US researchers asked men to complete questionnaires about what they ate and when they ate it, then tracked their health for 16 years. Those who said they skipped breakfast were found to have a higher risk of heart attack or fatal coronary heart disease.
Lead author Leah Cahill, of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and colleagues, write about their findings in a July 23rd issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
In a statement, Leah Cahill, who is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of nutrition at HSPH, explains what may lie behind the findings:
"Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time."
For their study the researchers analyzed food frequency questionnaires completed by 26,902 male health professionals aged between 45 and 82 years and tracked their health for 16 years from 1992 to 2008. The men were free of heart disease and cancer at the start of the study.
Over the follow-up, 1,572 men experienced non-fatal heart attacks or died of coronary heart disease.
When they analyzed the data the researchers found men who said they did not have breakfast had a 27% higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than men who said they ate breakfast.
Breakfast tips
Incorporate many types of healthy foods into your breakfast, Leah Cahill advises - as this is "an easy way to ensure your meal provides adequate energy and a healthy balance of nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals."
Adding nuts and chopped fruit to cereal is "great way to start the day," the authors say
If eating a bowl of cereal, try adding nuts and chopped fruit, or steel-cut oatmeal. This is a "great way to start the day," Leah Cahill adds.
Senior author Eric Rimm, associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, says the team has spent decades looking at the effects of quality and composition of diet on health, and now this new study suggests overall dietary habits should also be considered in lowering risk of heart disease.
At a conference in 2012, UK scientists presented a study that explained why people who skip breakfast tend to find high calorie food more appealing later in the day: their brain circuits may be primed toward seeking it when fasting.
