People who eat breakfast every day are up to 50 per cent less likely to be obese or to have insulin resistance.

Previous research has emphasised the importance of breakfast for maintaining a healthy weight. Now researchers at Harvard Medical School underline the importance of the breakfast habit.

They surveyed a group of 1,198 black people and 1,633 white people, looking at breakfast habits and heart disease risk over an eight year period. They find that 47 per cent of whites and just 22 per cent of blacks eat breakfast each day. They find that white men and women, and black men, who had breakfast had a reduced risk of obesity and insulin resistance, a condition which often precedes diabetes. They are still looking at why breakfast has little impact on black women.

There may be specific beneficial hormonal changes linked to breakfast, the researchers say. Or it may be that filling yourself up first thing makes you less likely to overeat later. They are now looking at the impact of what people eat at breakfast. Already it seems that whole-grain cereal 0 with at least two grams of fiber per serving - reduces insulin resistance risk by 15 per cent.

Source

American Heart Association Annual Conference 6th March 2003