If you’ve made skipping breakfast a habit, it’s probably time to break it.
For some folks, breakfast isnt the most important meal of the dayits the most skipped.
After all, glucose is the brains primary fuel.
Photo:Getty Images. EatingWell design.
How Was This Study Conducted?
This study was an observational study, meaning that the researchers simply observed participants without creating specific conditions.
Researchers considered breakfast skippers as those who regularly skip breakfast at least once a week.
Of these, 117 were categorized as habitual breakfast skippers.
This analysis is called 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM).
At baseline, demographic information, including age, sex and education level, was collected.
Brain atrophya shrinking brainhas been linked to dementia.
Of the 179 who had MRIs, 34 were considered breakfast skippers.
Neurodegeneration is a loss of brain and nervous system function.
What Did This Study Find?
MMSE scores were still similar at the 18-month follow-up.
It wasnt until the final 36-month follow-up that differences between the breakfast eaters and breakfast skippers started surfacing.
Those who habitually skipped breakfast had lower MMSE scores than breakfast eaters.
Results were similar for the PSM group, as well.
This held true in the PSM group as well.
How Does This Apply to Real Life?
These researchers feel that habitually skipping breakfast may directly increase certain biomarkers of cognitive decline and reduce brain size.
One key here is habitual.
If you are a regular breakfast skipper, examine why.
Are you not hungry in the morning?
Do you feel like you dont have time for breakfast?
Or did you somewhere along the line just fall into this habit?
Ditto forbaked oatmeal,egg bitesandmuffins.
And rotating through a few of those options can keep you from getting stuck in a breakfast rut.
Eat it with cows milk, soy milk, yogurt or kefir for added protein.
Whole-grain toastwith eggs, avocado or a slather of nut butter are other great fiber-protein combo options.
And who says breakfast has to be confined to what is considered traditional breakfast foods?
Last nights leftovers work, too.
If youre in need of ideas, try shuffling through some of oursimple, cozy winter breakfast recipes.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;69:1665.
