Breakfast reduces risk of heart attack

By Mariam Digges

Breakfast reduces risk of heart attack
Eating breakfast reduces risk of coronary heart disease by up to the same amount as exercising two to three times a week would.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a 16-year study in which 7.3 per cent of participants who admitted to regularly skipping breakfast were diagnosed with coronary heart disease.  While previous studies have shown that breakfast lowers the risk factors that lead to CHD, including diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and cholesterol, until now, a direct link had not been established.

The study exhibited how those who missed breakfast had a similar calorie intake to those who didn’t, which suggests that those who skipped breakfast ate more throughout the day. While the Harvard team analysed data for 26,902 males over a 16-year period, the results are believed to have wider implications across both sexes.

The main problem, according to the study leaders, was that skipping breakfast and consequently having larger and fewer meals throughout the day put “unnecessary stress” on the body, creating unhealthily large spikes of blood glucose that could be overcome by having smaller and more frequent meals.

So, starting the day with a well-balanced meal is not only good for kickstarting your metabolism, but in the long-term, it could help save your life.

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