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Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Poor Childhood Breakfast Habits

Poached Egg Breakfast“You are what you eat,” warns the widely repeated saying. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Now a new study from researchers at Umeå University in Sweden suggests a link between metabolic syndrome in adults and the types of breakfasts those adults ate as children.

Metabolic syndrome is the term for a group of risk factors that co-occur and increase the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Metabolic refers to the biochemical processes involved in the normal functioning of the body. To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, an individual must meet at least three of the five requirements, which include (1) a large waistline (abdominal obesity), (2) a high triglyceride level, (3) a low HDL cholesterol level , (4) high blood pressure, and (5) high fasting blood sugar. Individuals taking medication to control triglyceride, HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, or blood sugar also meet the requirements for metabolic syndrome.

Due to increasing obesity rates, metabolic syndrome is also becoming an increasing health problem. Many health professionals believe that the syndrome will soon overtake smoking as the leading risk factor for heart disease.

Now a study links an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome during adulthood with eating no or an insubstantial breakfast during childhood.

In the present study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, researchers studied a group of Swedish schoolchildren and then followed up with the children as adults 27 years later.

According to the study, the individuals who did not eat breakfast or who ate an insubstantial breakfast as children were 68 percent more likely to development metabolic syndrome during adulthood compared to the individuals who ate substantial breakfasts during childhood. Even after accounting for compounding factors such as socioeconomics and lifestyles, the study suggested that childhood breakfasts are an important factor in adulthood metabolic syndrome.

Concludes lead study author Maria Wennberg, “Further studies are required for us to be able to understand the mechanisms involved in the connection between poor breakfast and metabolic syndrome, but our results and those of several previous studies suggest that a poor breakfast can have a negative effect on blood sugar regulation.”

The most obvious links between poor childhood breakfasts and adult metabolic syndrome are abdominal obesity and high levels of fasting blood sugar. Poor diet increases the risk of both.

Another recent study also linked the use of nicotine replacement therapy during pregnancy to metabolic syndrome in adulthood.

References

Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Poor Breakfast Habits in Childhood: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271979.php
What Is Metabolic Syndrome?: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/ms/

Image Credits

Poached Egg Breakfast: http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1393876

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