Many studies have already shown the importance of eating breakfast and a new study has yet again offers another evidence of why skipping the day's most important meal isn't such a good idea particularly among teens.
For the new study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Feb. 25, researchers have shown that eating breakfast regularly can lead to faster metabolism rate. Teenagers who eat high protein breakfast, in particular, were found to have faster metabolism rate compared with their counterparts who often skipped breakfast.
Heather Leidy, from the Michigan University, and colleagues involved 35 overweight women between 18 and 20 years old who either eat breakfast or skip breakfast regularly. The participants' body mass index was between 27.3 and 29.1.
The participants who skip breakfast were assigned to eat a high carbohydrate diet, a high protein diet or continue skipping the first meal of the day for three days in a row. Those who eat breakfast, on the other hand, were assigned to eat either a high protein or a high carbohydrate for three consecutive days.
On the fourth day, the researchers measured the glucose and insulin levels of the participants throughout the day and found that the breakfast skippers who eat high protein breakfast had high glucose levels throughout the day while those who ate high carbohydrate breakfast and those who continued skipping the meal did not exhibit the same effect.
The researchers likewise found that among breakfast eater, eating high protein breakfast leads to reduced glucose levels throughout the day.
"Novel differences in the glucose response to HP vs NP breakfasts were observed and were influenced by the frequency of habitual breakfast consumption in overweight adolescents," the researchers wrote in their study.
The researchers said that the results indicate that those who habitually skip breakfast may have increased inability to metabolize large amounts of protein albeit they do not know how long breakfast skippers need to continue eating the first meal of the day to gain the benefits. Their findings also show why individuals who skip breakfast should increase their protein intake.
"Our data would suggest that once someone begins to eat breakfast, they should gradually transition to a breakfast with more protein -- or about 30 grams -- to elicit improvements in glycemic control," the researchers said.
Poor glycemic control is linked with increased risk for cardiovascular complications and Type 2 diabetes.
