What do we risk skip breakfast and go to work on an empty stomach? The eternal debate on the importance of the first meal of the day is revived with two new studies, one American and one British. To the point that we no longer know what to think: should we take our bowl of muesli in the morning even if we are not hungry? According to these latest works, skipping the morning meal would not be serious and even less dangerous for health.
Without fear of taking the champions of balanced breakfasts the wrong way, these new works affirm that the only obvious benefit of sustenance in the morning is to have fuel to be more active during the day.
To make this observation, researchers from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, in the United States, checked the commonly accepted idea that skipping breakfast can make you fat. They asked 300 volunteers to split into two groups, one having breakfast and the other not. After 16 weeks, no difference in weight change was observed between the two groups.
Skipping breakfast, a lesser evil?
The second study, from the University of Bath, in Great Britain, also puts into perspective the importance of taking a hot drink, cereal, fruit and a dairy product in the morning. This time only 33 people took part in the experience of having either breakfast or not. Verdict: no difference in cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels and weight change. The only finding is that the breakfast group was more active during the day.
These two new studies contradict the amount of research that has established a link between the absence of breakfast and the risk of weight gain, the risk of diabetes or the risk of heart attack. Who to believe? One certainty: breakfast should be part of a balanced diet.