Eating poor breakfasts in youth may lead to metabolic syndrome in adulthood

A new study has found that consuming a healthy breakfast in formative years can prevent people from metabolic syndrome in adulthood.

The Umea University study revealed that adolescents who ate poor breakfasts displayed a higher incidence of metabolic syndrome 27 years later, compared with those who ate more substantial breakfasts.

Metabolic syndrome is a collective term for factors that are linked to an increased risk of suffering from cardiovascular disorders.

Metabolic syndrome encompasses abdominal obesity, high levels of harmful triglycerides, low levels of protective HDL (High Density Lipoprotein), high blood pressure and high fasting blood glucose levels.

The study asked all students completing year 9 of their schooling in Lulea in 1981 (Northern Swedish Cohort) to answer questions about what they ate for breakfast.

27 years later, the respondents underwent a health check where the presence of metabolic syndrome and its various subcomponents was investigated.

The study shows that the young people who neglected to eat breakfast or ate a poor breakfast had a 68 percent higher incidence of metabolic syndrome as adults, compared with those who had eaten more substantial breakfasts in their youth.

This conclusion was drawn after taking into account socioeconomic factors and other lifestyle habits of the adolescents in question.

Abdominal obesity and high levels of fasting blood glucose levels were the subcomponents which, at adult age, could be most clearly linked with poor breakfast in youth.

The study is published in journal Public Health Nutrition.