Set your alarm! Why early breakfast prevents diabetes

HAVING an early breakfast could lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Adults who eat for the first time before 8.30am have lower blood sugar levels, a study has found.

They are also more sensitive to insulin – the hormone which regulates blood sugar.

Researchers looked at 10,575 participants involved in a national health survey who were twice asked to list their meals and snacks from the previous day.

The sample was divided into two groups – those who began eating before 8.30am and those who ate after this time. The results, presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, showed that earlier eaters had lower blood sugar levels and more insulin sensitivity. Some experts believe that eating earlier matches our body clock – our natural need to sleep and eat at particular times – so our metabolic processes work better and insulin works more efficiently.

This is important because those with high blood sugar levels and low insulin sensitivity are more at risk of type 2 diabetes.

One in ten people in the UK over the age of 40 have this form of diabetes. And among the 3.8million living with the condition, 90 percent have type 2, which is linked to obesity. Dr Marriam Ali, who led the study by Northwestern University in Chicago, said: ‘We found people who started eating earlier in the day had lower blood sugar levels and less insulin resistance, regardless of whether they restricted their food intake.’

The study also split the participants into those who ate over less than ten hours a day, ate for ten to 13 hours or more than 13 hours. It has previously been suggested that those who finish meals earlier in the evening, so that they spend less of the day eating, are healthier. But the study showed that in terms of blood sugar, it did not matter how long they spent eating.