Skipping Breakfast: Bad for the Heart

By Editorial Staff

A scientific statement from the American Heart Association makes it crystal clear: Breakfast is good for your heart. The AHA guidelines recommend eating breakfast every day, eating more calories earlier in the day and eating less calories later in the day can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke.

Here's just one pearl from the statement: "Epidemiological studies provide strong evidence of a relation between breakfast skipping and cardiometabolic risk. These include greater risk of overweight and obesity, metabolic risk profile, diabetes mellitus, CVD, and hypertension. These risks seem to be independent of differences in diet quality between breakfast eaters and nonconsumers."

If you eat breakfast every day, good for you. But according to estimates, up to 30 percent of U.S. adults skip the morning meal. That means you or someone you know likely starts their day without the essential nutrition their body needs. Need some healthy breakfast options for a busy, on-the-go go-getter? Click here and talk to your doctor about the benefits of a healthy breakfast every day. To review the entire AHA scientific statement, published in the AHA journal Circulation last month, click here.