Eat Breakfast To Avoid Diabetes And More

These researchers looked at thousands of study participants who did not have type II diabetes at the start of a 20 year study and found that eating breakfast decreased the chance of developing type II diabetes mellitus by 31 percent and that breakfast eaters also gained less weight in their body mass index. Those with higher diet quality had lower incidences of type II diabetes leading researchers to the conclusion, that the higher the quality of breakfast, the better the results overall, but also found that frequency of eating breakfast helped more than just the quality of breakfast.

The CARDIA study
The name of the study led by Andrew Odegaard, PhD, is the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. CARDIA is a longitudinal study of 5115 black and white women between the ages of 18 and 30 years who were initially examined in 1985 and reexamined at years 2, 5, 7, 10, 15, and 20. CARDIA was presented at a poster session at the 2012 American Diabetes Association 72nd Scientific Sessions. Data collected included a number of cardiac risk factors, including smoking, blood pressure, and cholesterol, as well as behavioral and psychological data and a dietary history questionnaire that recorded dietary caloric intake and breakfast frequency.

Skipping breakfast causes weight gain!
Researchers have consistently found that when people skip breakfast to "lose weight" that it is more likely to cause weight gain than weight loss; and skipping breakfast is actually strongly linked to the development of obesity. Studies find that obese children, adolescents, and adults are less likely to eat breakfast every morning than their thinner counterparts.

Skipping meals, and especially skipping breakfast, makes weight control more difficult. Breakfast skippers tend to eat even more food at the next meal than normal and nibble on high-calorie snacks to curb hunger pangs. People actually accumulate more body fat when they eat fewer, larger meals than people who eat the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals. Teenagers often skip out on breakfast thinking that they are cutting down on calories to lose weight.

• Kids who skip breakfast are tardy and absent from school more often than children who eat a regular breakfast
• Kids who eat breakfast tend to eat healthier overall and are more likely to participate in physical activities
• Kids who eat breakfast have lower blood cholesterol levels
• Kids who eat breakfast make fewer trips to the school nurse with stomach complaints

Breakfast provides adults, teens and children with the energy needed for improved memory, concentration, productivity, attention, creativity, mood, behaviors and academic performance.

Never too late to start
The CARDIA study found that for each additional week of breakfast intake, there was a five percent decrease in risk of developing type II diabetes until maximum potential was reached. You will never save on time, calories or even sleep quality by skipping breakfast. Breakfast is much more valuable than the few extra minutes of sleep you might get by skipping breakfast in the morning. The benefit of morning alertness alone makes breakfast a worthy investment. The little extra effort spent pays great dividends in health and mental well-being. It's important for us as responsible parents to set the example, reinforce the habit and educate ourselves and our children about the importance of breakfast.

It's never too late to restart your life with good habits!