DailyDirt: Correlations Over Breakfast

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Aug 9th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

We've pointed out dietary studies before that suggest calories from different foods aren't the same and that when you eat could be as important as what you eat. But how about focusing just on one meal: breakfast. Should you eat a big breakfast? Is it bad to skip breakfast? Here are just some partial answers.

Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? But healthy adults can skip breakfast without fear of gaining weight. According to the researchers, "We need to revisit the assumption that we must always eat breakfast, and learn if we really need to eat breakfast all the time." [url]
But wait, don't skip breakfast regularly if you're a middle aged man -- or else you're 27% more likely to die, probably of coronary heart disease. In the long run, we're all dead anyway? [url]
If you like eating breakfast, a big breakfast could help you lose weight, according to a study of 93 obese women split into two groups (both eating 1,400 calories daily for 12 weeks). The "big breakfast" group ate 700 calories in the morning, 500 cals for lunch and 200 cals for dinner, and the "big dinner" group reversed the sizes of those meals. At the end, the both groups lost weight, but the big breakfast eaters lost an average of 17.8 pounds (versus just 7.3 pounds for the big dinner eaters). [url]

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Filed Under: breakfast, calories, correlation, diet, dinner, food, heart disease, meal, obesity, weight loss

5 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Aug 2013 @ 6:21pm

Who sponsors the big breakfast studies?
Cereal companies? Denny's? IHOP?
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Pixelation, 9 Aug 2013 @ 7:30pm

"Scientists studied 93 obese women"

Okay, so these results have little to do with the rest of us I assume.
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Sinan Unur (profile), 9 Aug 2013 @ 7:34pm

Obligatory reference to NumberWatch
Relative risk is very misleading with observational data (rather than controlled, randomized trials). All the cautions are listed succinctly at numberwatch.co.uk/RR.htm. Most importantly, IMHO,

X and Y, while inherently unrelated, might be correlated through a third factor, or indeed many others
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Beta (profile), 9 Aug 2013 @ 8:28pm

Extra! Extra!
"Male health professionals who said they regularly skipped breakfast were 27% more likely to die during 16 years of follow-up... And those who said they ate late at night were 55% more likely to die...

...Both relationships, however, fell shy of statistical significance after further adjustment..."

In other words, nothing. This is medical journalism?
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stonedome, 17 Aug 2013 @ 8:26am

Re: Who sponsors the big breakfast studies?
"The big breakfast group also experienced significant reductions in blood levels of insulin, glucose and triglyceride fats" dr atkins pioneered this in the 80's and was lambasted by the medical community. now, the proof is out. i eat a big breakfast everyday and my cholesterol is the lowest it's ever been...cut out the huge cereal, pasta, potato and bread components and you'll see a big decrease in all of those numbers. and you won't be hungry every twenty minutes.
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