Don’t skip meals, doctor’s orders!

Research suggests that missing brekkie harms our hearts, Dr Christian serves up his opinion

We’ve known for a long time that W cutting out meals makes people overweight. A new study has shown those who don’t eat breakfast have a greater build-up of fatty material in their arteries, which is bad for your heart.

The authors think it’s because missing breakfast disrupts your body clock, but I suspect there’s more to it. Perhaps people who skip meals also smoke more, exercise less, or are heavier or more stressed, all of which impacts heart health.

It’s easy to do; you oversleep and miss breakfast, work through lunch or get home too late for dinner, or you mistakenly think you’ll be slimmer by missing a meal, but you end up starving and grab whatever’s quick and convenient. The hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin kick in, and under their influence you make bad choices.

LISTEN TO HUNGER

Skipping meals has also been linked to Type 2 diabetes. In a study, people of a healthy weight ate three meals a day for eight weeks, then they skipped meals, but ate the same number of calories. When they missed meals they had raised fasting glucose and a delayed insulin response, which can increase your risk of diabetes long term.

We recommend three meals a day because eating every few hours is good for your metabolism and prevents energy dips, but that isn’t perfect for everyone. Some do better by eating smaller, more frequent meals, while others function well without breakfast. It’s about what’s right for you. If you find yourself foggy headed and “hangry,” you need breakfast, but if you’ve never eaten breakfast and feel fine, don’t worry about your heart. Listen to your body.

Skipping meals to lose weight doesn’t work. Research found that women who ate three meals lost almost 8lbs more than those who missed meals. It’s also worth mentioning the 5:2 Diet – we think of it as fasting, but you don’t skip meals, you just eat less calories over two days per week.

SMALL CHANGES

You can see how people think cutting out meals would work, because you’re eating less, but it’s far better to reduce each meal by 10 per cent – that’s a spoonful less cereal, one fewer potato at dinner, or taking the mayo out of your sandwich at lunch. Those little things are easy, so they stick – and they make a big difference over time. That’s far better than starving yourself for a whole meal, then desperately grabbing a doughnut at the checkout.