MADRID, Oct 18 — New European research has highlighted the importance of a healthy breakfast for children, finding that those who start their day with a breakfast low in nutritional value are more likely to have risk factors associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disease.
Carried out by researchers at the Institute for Innovation and Sustainable Development in the Food Chain (IS-FOOD) of the Public University of Navarre (NUP/UPNA) together with the University of Granada, Spain and published in the journal Nutrients, the new study looked at the breakfast habits of 203 schoolchildren age 8 to 12 who were overweight or obese.
The team also assessed the children’s physical activity levels, and measured cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors such as body composition, uric acid, blood pressure, glucose levels and insulin levels.
The findings showed that the children who did not eat breakfast everyday or who ate breakfasts that were lower in nutritional quality and higher in energy density, which have more calories per gram of food, had higher levels of cholesterol and uric acid and greater insulin resistance.
The team also found that a low quality breakfast had a negative effect even in children who met the daily recommendations on physical activity, which is 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity.
“Breakfast is not just the first meal of the day but also the one that can be regarded as the most important,” said study author Idoia Labayen-Goñi. “Despite that, many children go to school without having had any breakfast, which means that by lunchtime they are hungrier and may eat more than they should. The absence of breakfast has been previously correlated with excess fat and other associated disorders, so promoting breakfast is already being used as part of the strategy in preventing child obesity.”
The researchers concluded that as well as making sure children eat breakfast, the quality of the first meal of the day is also important. Labayen-Goñi added that reducing the consumption of high energy density food, such as “ultra-processed products, commonly present in children’s breakfasts” should also be considered to help prevent cardiometabolic disease in children who are overweight or obese. — AFP-Relaxnews
