Regular breakfast consumption prevents weight gain in children

Having breakfast regularly or transitioning from omission to regular consumption appears to improve weight regulation in children and may even prevent weight gain, suggests a study.

A total of 6,528 children (mean age 8.2 years, 48.9 percent male) were assessed in this study. The authors used parent-reported questionnaires to examine the children’s lifestyle behaviours, including breakfast frequency. They measured weight and height and converted these to z-BMI.

Participants were grouped based on trajectories of breakfast consumption habit (ie, regular consumption, irregular consumption, or omission) at baseline and follow-up. The prospective association between breakfast trajectories and z-BMI increase was explored using logistic regression, with adjustments for demographic and lifestyle variables.

Breakfast trajectories had a significant effect on z-BMI both at baseline and follow-up. For instance, children who skipped breakfast had a significant increase in BMI z-score from 0.891 at baseline to 1.072 at follow-up (p<0.05).

Regular eaters, on the other hand, had significantly lower BMI z-score at follow-up compared with both irregular eaters and stable skippers (0.615 vs 1.229; p<0.05).

Notably, stable regular breakfast consumption (odds ratio [OR], 0.55, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.31–0.97; p=0.039) and transition from omission to regular consumption (OR, 0.43, 95 percent CI, 0.21–0.88; p=0.021) independently contributed to a significantly reduced risk of z-BMI gain relative to stable omission.

“Further studies are warranted to extend the evidence on the breakfast habit-BMI association among children,” the authors said.