Does skipping breakfast really lead to cardiovascular disease?

Many people know that breakfast is important. A study in the United States found that people who never eat breakfast have a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality, especially stroke mortality. However, it is inevitable that many people sometimes ignore or even miss breakfast. Is skipping breakfast really that harmful?

Let's take a look at the relevant research in the United States. In this study, researchers conducted an 18-year follow-up study on 6,550 participants who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Survey of the United States. The results showed that after taking into account socioeconomic status, race, age, gender, diet and lifestyle, weight and cardiovascular risk factors, people who never eat breakfast have an 87% higher risk of cardiovascular death, a 19% higher risk of all-cause death, and a 239% higher risk of stroke than those who eat breakfast every day.

However, this study actually has limitations, so there is no need to worry too much. First of all, this is a prospective cohort study, and the results of the study are observational. They can only find correlations, but cannot prove causality. In other words, it cannot be proved that skipping breakfast is the direct cause of cardiovascular disease. Secondly, in general, people who insist on eating breakfast every day pay more attention to their physical health, and therefore may have other good living habits, such as not smoking, not drinking, exercising regularly, and not staying up late. In addition, although studies have shown that the risk of cardiovascular death increased by 87%, the actual number of increased cases was not large-only 41 cases were found in the 18-year observational study.

It is worth noting that sometimes we cannot assume that people who eat breakfast are necessarily healthier. If you eat fried dough sticks, fried cakes, hamburgers and French fries for breakfast, this cannot be considered a healthy diet. Whether a diet is healthy requires observing long-term dietary conditions, and cannot be determined by whether or not you eat breakfast or how you eat.

In fact, the factors that lead to cardiovascular disease are very complex, such as smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, and excessive salt intake.

So, is it okay to skip breakfast? As the pace of life continues to accelerate, more and more people are beginning to ignore breakfast. Although skipping breakfast does not necessarily lead to cardiovascular disease, it is still recommended that everyone try to stick to breakfast.

Breakfast is part of daily meals, and eating breakfast every day is also a healthy lifestyle advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO). As the first meal of the day, breakfast is crucial to dietary nutrition intake, health status, and work or study efficiency. Breakfast is the longest time from the previous meal and consumes a lot of energy. If it is not replenished in time, hunger will occur, resulting in reduced brain excitability, slow reaction, and lack of concentration, affecting work and study efficiency.

A large number of studies have also shown that eating breakfast regularly is good for health. Many other studies have found that eating breakfast regularly is negatively correlated with obesity and cardiovascular disease. my country's dietary guidelines also point out that a reasonable diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and eating breakfast regularly is also part of a reasonable diet, so it is very important.

However, many people do not eat a good breakfast. The "Survey Report on Breakfast Diet in China" shows that 35% of Chinese people cannot eat breakfast every day; even if they can eat breakfast, many people do not eat it healthily. 55% of people have less than three kinds of breakfast food every day, and 42% of people finish it in 10 minutes, making it difficult to achieve a balanced diet.

In fact, the basic principle of a healthy breakfast is to ensure that the food types are diverse and the nutritional combination is reasonable.

In this regard, it is recommended to start from two aspects: First, eat a full breakfast. Generally speaking, it is recommended that the energy provided by breakfast accounts for 25% to 30% of the total energy of the whole day to ensure the work and study efficiency throughout the morning. Therefore, try to eat a full breakfast. Second, eat a good breakfast. Here, good means that the nutritional value of breakfast should be good. To provide rich nutrition for the human body, breakfast should preferably contain vegetables, fruits, whole grains, eggs and milk and other foods, so as to ensure balanced nutrition. For example, if you are used to eating soy milk and fried dough sticks every day, you might as well add bananas or apples; if you drink white porridge and eat steamed buns every day, you might as well add some vegetables and eggs to make it more perfect.

For some office workers or people who cannot make breakfast, it is recommended that they stock up some breakfast cereals, milk, nuts, fruits, etc. at home or at work in case of emergency.

(The author is the director of the Science and Technology Department of the Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center)