According to an American study, individuals choosing not to eat morning meals will lack essential nutrients.
With vital nutrients being stored in most breakfast items, the findings disclose that people who miss morning meals are unlikely to consume calcium, vitamin C, and fibre.
Leading researcher, Professor Christopher Taylor said: “What we’re seeing is that if you don’t eat the foods that are commonly consumed at breakfast, you have a tendency not to eat them the rest of the day.
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“So, those common breakfast nutrients become a nutritional gap.”
The recent dietary document from the U.S Department of Agriculture states that health complications are more likely to occur when you don’t consume regular doses of calcium, potassium, fibre and vitamin D.
Previous research has found that severe behavioural issues and a lack of concentration amongst school children is also caused by skipping breakfast.
The American-based academics gathered the findings after analysing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which assembles the nation’s official health guidance after annually examining 5,000 people.
More than 30,000 individuals who had took part in the national survey between 2005 and 2016 were analysed for this study.
The results identified that 15.2% of partakers admitted that they don’t eat morning meals.
Fellow researcher Stephanie Fanelli said: “During the recall, participants self-designate their eating occasions as a meal or a snack, and they tell you at what point in time they ate whatever food they report.
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“That’s how we determined whether someone was a breakfast eater or a breakfast skipper.”
After analysing the food intake of people who skip breakfast compared to people who don’t, it was confirmed that those who miss morning meals don’t consume enough folate, calcium, iron and vitamins.
“We found those who skipped breakfast were significantly more likely not to meet the bottom threshold of what we hope to see people eat,” said Stephanie Fanelli.
Professor Christopher Taylor said: “Those who skipped breakfast had one nutrient profile and those who ate breakfast had a different nutrient profile.
“It helps us identify on any given day that this percentage of people are more likely to be skipping breakfast and, on that day, their dietary intake pattern showed that their consumption didn’t capture those extra nutrients that they have basically missed at breakfast.”
All of the research findings for this study are now virtually available in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.
