Skipping breakfast can lead to more weight gain

Washington, July 1 (ANI): Individuals, who skip breakfast, have been found to weigh more and have other unhealthy habits than those who take their breakfast, according to researchers.

According to Nancy Auestad, PhD, vice president of regulatory affairs at the Dairy Research Institute, it been has found that about 18 percent of Americans older than age 2 regularly skip breakfast.

She also said that they miss out on key nutrients, pointing to statistics that show breakfast-eaters get about 17 percent of their daily calories from breakfast as well as a significant portion of their daily recommend intake of several key nutrients, such as Vitamin D (58 percent), Vitamin B12 (42 percent) and Vitamin A (41 percent).

In addition, studies of young people revealed that breakfast-skippers consume 40 percent more sweets, 55 percent more soft drinks, 45 percent fewer vegetables and 30 percent less fruit than people who eat breakfast.

"Most of these negative factors were abbreviated when breakfast was consumed, compared with breakfast-skippers," Heather Leidy, PhD, assistant professor in the department of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri, said.

"Targeting that behavior could lead to a reduction in obesity."

Leidy, who conducted research focusing on the role of protein in breakfast, found that the effects of breakfast skipping were felt throughout the day.

She assembled a group of 10 breakfast-skipping teenagers and divided them into groups that consumed no breakfast, a normal-protein breakfast and a high-protein breakfast.

By measuring their hunger levels and several other indicators, she found that eating a healthy breakfast of any kind lead to more satiety and less overeating throughout the day.

But these benefits were also especially prominent among the teens, which ate the high-protein breakfast. They consumed about 200 calories less during evening snacking.

Her study also used MRI to determine that a protein-rich breakfast reduces the brain signals controlling food desires, even many hours after breakfast. (ANI)