Teens having breakfast daily eat healthier diets: study

Washington, Mar 4 (UNI) Teenagers who eat breakfast daily have healthier diets later in life than those who skip it, a new study has found.

Researchers have examined the association between breakfast frequency and five-year body weight change in more than 2,200 adolescents, and the results indicate that daily breakfast eaters consumed a healthier diet and were more physically active than breakfast skippers during adolescence.

Five years later, the daily breakfast eaters also tended to gain less weight and have lower body mass index levels, an indicator of obesity risk, compared with those who had skipped breakfast as adolescents, scientists added.

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health Project Eating Among Teens (EAT) researchers found evidence to support the importance of encouraging youth to eat breakfast regularly.

Mark Pereira, PhD, corresponding author on the study, pointed out that this study extends the literature on the topic of breakfast habits and obesity risk because of the size and duration of the study.

''The dose-response findings between breakfast frequency and obesity risk, even after taking into account physical activity and other dietary factors, suggests that eating breakfast may have important effects on overall diet and obesity risk, but experimental studies are needed to confirm these observations,'' Sciencedaily quoted him as saying.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that over the past two decades, rates of obesity doubled in children and nearly tripled in adolescents.

57 per cent of adolescent females and 33 per cent of males frequently used unhealthy weight-control behaviours, and it was estimated that between 12 and 24 per cent of children and adolescents regularly skipped breakfast, the report said.

The percentage of breakfast skippers was found to increase with age, it added.

Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, principal investigator of Project EAT, said this research confirmed the importance of teaching adolescents to start the day off 'right' by eating the most important meal of the day.

''Although adolescents may think that skipping breakfast seems like a good way to save on calories, findings suggest the opposite.

Eating a healthy breakfast may help adolescents avoid overeating later in the day and disrupt unhealthy eating patterns, such as not eating early in the day and eating a lot late in the evening,'' she added.

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