Do eat breakfast... or the arteries might give you a hard time

A study shows that a good morning meal boosts heart health and trims your waistline

Are you in the habit of missing your breakfast every day? Beware — you may be at an increased risk of atherosclerosis, a condition in which the arteries tend to harden and narrow due to a build-up of plaque, researchers have warned.

On the other hand, eating a healthy breakfast has been shown to promote greater heart health, including healthier weight and cholesterol.

A recent study showed that atherosclerosis was observed with more frequency among people who skipped breakfast; the rate was also higher among participants who consumed lowenergy breakfasts compared to healthy breakfast eaters.

Importantly, people who skipped breakfast had the greatest waist circumference, body mass index, blood pressure, blood lipids and fasting glucose levels.

Participants who skipped breakfast were more likely to have an overall unhealthy lifestyle, including poor diet, frequent alcohol consumption and smoking. They were also more likely to be hypertensive and overweight or obese.

Cardiometabolic risk markers were more prevalent in those who skipped breakfast and low-energy breakfast consumers compared to healthy eaters.

“People who regularly skip breakfast likely have an overall unhealthy lifestyle,” said Valentin Fuster, co-author of the research and director of Mount Sinai Heart in New York and the Madridbased cardiovascular research institute, the CNIC. “[Here is] evidence that this is one bad habit people can proactively change to reduce their risk of heart disease.”

For the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the research team examined 4,052 men and women who were free from cardiovascular or chronic kidney disease when the study began. Of these, 2.9 per cent skipped breakfast, 69.4 per cent were low-energy breakfast consumers and 27.7 per cent were good breakfast consumers.

PEOPLE CAN PROACTIVELY CHANGE THEIR HABIT TO REDUCE THEIR RISK OF HEART DISEASE, SAYS THE CO-AUTHOR OF THE STUDY

Have a highenergy, balanced breakfast to stay fit and slim