Children who eat breakfasts high in energy but low in nutrition are likely to see higher cholesterol levels, increased insulin resistance and an elevated risk for cardiovascular complications in the future, according to research out of Spain.
The work, led by Lida Arenaza of the Institute of Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain (IS-FOOD) in Pamplona, Spain, assessed how breakfast quality and energy density interacted to influence the cardiometabolic health of 203 children between 8 and 12 years old.
“Breakfast has traditionally been considered as being not only the first, but also the most important meal of the day,” Arenaza and colleagues at IS-FOOD wrote in Nutrients, where their work was published this week. “It has been reported that children are hungrier and consume more food before lunch when skipping breakfast, while it is unclear when skipping other meals.”
That disordered eating puts kids at risk for obesity, the authors said, so breakfast reform has been suggested as a preventive measure to promote a healthy lifestyle and minimize the risk of future metabolic complications like diabetes.
Arenaza et al. noted the nature of today’s food market means children have a wide variety of breakfast options, the majority of them sugary, carbohydrate-rich and saturated with unhealthy fats. In Spain, where the researchers’ study was based, a typical morning meal might include biscuits, pastries, milkshakes or cereals with little nutritional value.
In their study of more than 200 overweight or obese Spanish children, the authors used dual x-ray absorptiometry to measure every patient’s body composition, uric acid levels, blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose and insulin. The team assessed breakfast consumption and physical activity in the population, and calculated a breakfast quality index (BQI) score for each patient.
According to the study’s results, up to 21 percent of girls and 11 percent of boys skipped breakfast, but BQI scores were similar between the sexes. Kids who ate breakfasts of lower nutritional quality and greater energy density saw higher levels of cholesterol and uric acid than their peers, as well as greater insulin resistance.
“The main findings were that both breakfast quality and breakfast energy density were associated with some of the cardiometabolic risk factors studied,” Arenaza and colleagues wrote. “The BQI score was inversely associated with serum uric acid, while breakfast energy density from solids was related to higher total and HDL cholesterol.”
Higher breakfast energy density from beverages was also associated with higher levels of insulin resistance, independent of a child’s physical activity.
“Results of the current study suggest that breakfast energy density should be considered as an additional dimension of breakfast intake,” the authors said. “Therefore, nutritional education programs targeting the prevention of cardiometabolic disease in children who are overweight or obese should include strategies focused on promoting high-quality and low energy density foods for breakfast.”
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.