Why skipping breakfast can be bad for your heart

Some say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Is it really? That’s up for debate. However, skipping the first meal is not the healthiest choice and can even put someone at risk for health issues. In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, explains why.

“Skipping breakfast, historically, hasn’t been something necessarily healthy,” Dr. Lopez-Jimenez says.

He adds that missing the first meal of the day isn’t good for your heart.

“There are numerous studies showing that people who skip breakfast have an increased risk for heart disease and many other ailments,” he says.

Not only that, there’s also some evidence to suggest that heart attacks are more likely to happen in the morning.

“Part of it is the high adrenaline state that occurs early in the morning. If you match that with no food, no calories at all, what happens is that the body says, ‘Well, with no food, I could die from starvation, so I have to do some extra things.’ And those extra things are basically crunching the glands that make adrenaline. And essentially, the body gets into this rush of adrenaline,” says Dr. Lopez-Jimenez.

And for those wanting to lose weight through fasting, breakfast is not the right meal to miss.

“People who skip breakfast, many times they’re able to do that because they have a pretty large dinner,” says Dr. Lopez-Jimenez. “So you’re feeding the body with calories at the time when your body is just about to go to sleep, when you need calories the least.”

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