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Review
. 2011 Jan;141(1):163-8.
doi: 10.3945/jn.109.114405. Epub 2010 Dec 1.

Breakfast frequency and quality may affect glycemia and appetite in adults and children

Mark A Pereira  1 , Elizabeth Erickson, Patricia McKee, Karilyn Schrankler, Susan K Raatz, Leslie A Lytle, Anthony D Pellegrini
Affiliations
Review

Breakfast frequency and quality may affect glycemia and appetite in adults and children

Mark A Pereira et al. J Nutr. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

Observational studies of breakfast frequency in children and adults suggest an inverse (protective) association between the frequency of eating breakfast and the risk for obesity and chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. More prospective studies with stronger designs are needed, as are experimental studies on this topic. In addition, above and beyond breakfast frequency, the roles of dietary quality and composition need to be studied in the context of eating or skipping breakfast. Experimental studies are also necessary to rigorously test causality and biological mechanisms. Therefore, we conducted 2 pilot experimental studies to examine some of the effects of breakfast skipping and breakfast composition on blood glucose and appetite in children and adults. Our results suggest that breakfast frequency and quality may be related in causal ways to appetite controls and blood sugar control, supporting the hypothesis that the breakfast meal and its quality may have important causal implications for the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Author disclosures: M. Pereira, E. Erickson, P. McKee, K. Schrankler, S. Raatz, L. Lytle, and A. Pellegrini, no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Association between change in BMI and change in breakfast frequency in 2216 adolescent boys and girls from the Project Eating Among Teens cohort study. Data are means ± SEM adjusted for baseline BMI, baseline breakfast frequency, age, and gender. Adapted with permission from (20).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Theoretical model of breakfast frequency and quality in the development of obesity and chronic diseases. Reproduced with permission from (7).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Changes in the serum glucose concentrations of adults between 0 and 300 min after ingestion of 5 test breakfast meals differing in amount and type of carbohydrate (Study 1). Values represent the mean − SEM, n = 9. *Concentrations changed over time, P ≤ 0.01. The conditions did not differ from one another, P > 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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