London - Skipping breakfast in childhood may raise the risk of diabetes in later life, scientists claim.
British research suggests youngsters who do not eat the morning meal every day may be increasing their chances of developing the “type 2” form of the disease as they get older.
A study by scientists at Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow and St George’s London universities found children who missed breakfast were more likely to be insulin-resistant – a key factor in the disease.
They tracked more than 4 000 British primary school pupils aged nine and ten, monitoring how often they had breakfast and what they ate.
Children who did not have the morning meal were significantly more likely to have blood markers associated with diabetes risk than those who always ate breakfast.
They had higher insulin levels after not eating and their bodies were less able to respond to the hormone, which normally regulates the amount of sugar in the bloodstream.
Those skipping food first thing in the morning had very slightly higher blood sugar levels than children who regularly ate breakfast.
The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, concluded: “The observed associations suggest that regular breakfast consumption, particularly involving consumption of a high-fibre cereal, could protect against the early development of type 2 diabetes risk.”
Lead researcher Dr Angela Donin, of St George’s, University of London, said the study had not directly established why skipping the meal raises the risk of diabetes.
But she said it may be because those who do not have a healthy breakfast are more likely to snack on fatty foods later. Eating cereal also provides a source of fibre, which has been shown to protect against the disease, she added.
Almost three million people in the UK are believed to have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to lifestyle and obesity. The disease occurs when the body stops responding to insulin or produces too little of the hormone.
This results in sugar building up in the bloodstream instead of being used as fuel, leading to symptoms such as extreme tiredness and thirst. Diabetes can also cause blindness and kidney failure, and increase a person’s chance of heart disease and stroke.
Dr Donin said: “There is evidence that if you skip breakfast you are more likely to be overweight.
“This could be explained by your eating patterns for the rest of the day. If you have not eaten breakfast you are more likely to snack – and those snacks are more likely to be energy-heavy.”
She added: “Eating breakfast every day could reduce the snacking behaviour for the rest of the day.” Diabetes UK, which funded the study, said more research is needed into the link between the disease and eating breakfast.
Dr Alasdair Rankin, director of research at the charity, said: “We already know that giving your child a healthy breakfast, as part of a balanced diet, can have a range of benefits for health and wellbeing.
“More research will be needed to help us understand the exact link between eating breakfast and the development of type 2 diabetes, including studies that follow children through to adulthood to see how many young people with these warning signs go on to develop the condition.” - Daily Mail