Breakfast Important for Teens and Healthy Weight
For teens looking to keep weight off, it doesn’t have to be a breakfast of champions, but it should be some kind of breakfast — and preferably a healthy one.
Yet another study is confirming that adolescents who skip breakfast have a higher risk of being overweight.
“There’s a pretty significant inverse association between how frequently kids report eating breakfast and how much weight they gain over time, and we took into account other dietary factors and physical activity,” said Mark Pereira, co-author of the study, published in the March issue of Pediatrics.
“It’s interesting to note that the kids who eat breakfast on a daily basis overall have a much better diet and are more physically active,” Pereira said.
Added Dr. Peter Richel, chief of pediatrics at Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco, N.Y.: “Grandma and Mom are right. When we skip breakfast, especially in the teenage years, then kids tend to snack and graze.”
More than one-third of teens aged 12 to 19 are now overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. And over the past two decades, the proportion of children who are overweight has doubled; among teens, the proportion has tripled, according to background information with the study.
An estimated 12 percent to 34 percent of children and adolescents skip breakfast on a regular basis, a number that increases with age. Previous studies have linked breakfast skipping with a greater tendency to gain weight.
More than 2,000 adolescents were followed for five years. Participants completed detailed surveys on their eating patterns and also provided information on their height, weight, body-mass index and physical activity.
The more often a person ate breakfast, the less likely he or she was to be overweight or obese.
“This really shows that we have the potential to improve energy balance and weight control with healthy breakfast consumption. We’re not talking pop-tarts.”
