Skipping breakfast may raise diabetes risk

Skipping breakfast every day may be a bad idea after all especially if

you are overweight because it could increase the risk of developing

diabetes.

A small new study found that when women skipped the morning meal, they

experienced insulin resistance, a condition in which a person

requires more insulin to bring their blood sugar into a normal range,

explained Dr. Elizabeth Thomas, an instructor of medicine at the

University of Colorado.

This insulin resistance was short-term in the study, but when the

condition is chronic, it is a risk factor for diabetes, Thomas said.

She is due to present her findings at the Endocrine Society’s annual

meeting in San Francisco.

“Eating a healthy breakfast is probably beneficial,” Thomas said. “It

may not only help you control your weight but avoid diabetes.”

Diabetes has been diagnosed in more than 10 million Nigerians. Most

have type 2 diabetes, in which the body does not make enough insulin

or does not use it effectively. Excess weight is a risk factor for

diabetes.

The new study included nine women. Their average age was 29, and all

were overweight or obese. Thomas measured their levels of insulin and

blood sugar on two different days after the women ate lunch. On one

day, they had eaten breakfast; on the other day, they had skipped it.

Glucose levels normally rise after eating a meal, and that in turn

triggers insulin production, which helps the cells take in the glucose

and convert it to energy.

However, the women’s insulin and glucose levels after lunch were much

higher on the day they skipped breakfast than on the day they ate it.

On the day they did not eat breakfast, Thomas explained, “they

required a higher level of insulin to handle the same meal.”

“There was a 28 percent increase in the insulin response and a 12

percent increase in the glucose response after skipping breakfast,”

she said. That’s a mild rise in glucose and a moderate rise in

insulin, she noted.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and

conclusions are viewed as preliminary until published in a

peer-reviewed journal.

“Their study doesn’t prove causation,” said Dr. Joel Zonszein, a

professor of clinical medicine at the Albert Einstein College of

Medicine and director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore

Medical Center, in New York City.

The study found only a link or association between breakfast skipping

and higher insulin levels. More research is needed for confirmation,

another expert said.

“This is a small, but very interesting, study,” said Dr. Ping Wang,

director of the University of California, Irvine, Health Diabetes

Center. “The findings will have to be verified with larger studies.”

Whether the effect is short-term or long-term is not known, Wang said.

Zonszein recommends against either skipping meals or eating very

frequent meals, the so-called nibbling diet. “Studies done in Europe

have shown that a large meal in the middle of the day is better than a

large meal at dinner,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that pattern is more of a habit in Europe

than in the United States. Even so, he advises his patients to eat a

good breakfast, a good lunch and a lighter dinner.

Other ways to reduce diabetes risk, according to the American Diabetes

Association, are to control weight, blood pressure and cholesterol and

to be physically active.