Skipping breakfast may increase hypertension, high blood sugar risk

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, metabolic syndrome is having at least three of these five conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and low “good cholesterol.”

People who have metabolic syndrome can then be at an increased risk for several health problems, like heart failure, type 2 diabetes, and organ damage.

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nutrients found that not eating breakfast may increase the risk for metabolic syndrome. Thus, addressing this may help with tackling metabolic syndrome.

Review examines link between metabolic syndrome and skipping breakfast

The authors of the current review noted the wide variation in study results when it comes to skipping breakfast and metabolic syndrome risk.

This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted by researchers in China and sought to examine the relationship between not eating breakfast and risk for metabolic syndrome in the general population.

Researchers searched databases, including PubMed and the Web of Science, and identified studies that met their inclusion criteria. For example, the study had to focus on the general population, and metabolic syndrome, or individual components of metabolic syndrome, had to be outcomes.

They excluded studies for a few reasons as well, such as those that were not observational, or some that focused on certain special groups like individuals with diabetes. At least two reviewers were involved in assessing the quality of the studies.

In the end, researchers included nine studies, which allowed them to look at data from 118,385 participants. The findings suggested that skipping breakfast was associated with an increased risk for metabolic syndrome.

Researchers then looked at how skipping breakfast related to specific components of metabolic syndrome. Studies out of the United States and Japan did not find an association between skipping breakfast and abdominal obesity, but the study out of Iran did.

Pooling the data together, skipping breakfast was linked to a greater chance of having abdominal obesity.

Why is skipping breakfast linked to hypertension, high blood sugar?

Five studies examined how skipping breakfast linked to the risk of high blood pressure. The overall pooled analysis found that skipping breakfast increased people’s risk for high blood pressure.

The researchers observed similar findings for skipping breakfast and the risk for high blood sugar and hyperlipidemia.

When it came to heterogeneity, researchers did observe it, primarily for skipping breakfast and the risk for metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar. However, they were able to account for heterogeneity and see if the association remained significant, which it did for these findings.