Eating daily breakfast is associated with a lesser chance of developing type 2 diabetes, reveals a research presented at American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 72nd Scientific Conference at Philadelphia in 2012. Many studies have recommended eating breakfast, but there has been little research on the relationship between morning eating habits and development of T2D. In their study, researchers found that obesity and insulin resistance syndrome rates were 35 percent to 50 percent lower among people who ate breakfast every day compared to those who frequently skipped it. The researchers conducted an analysis of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which is a longitudinal study of 5115 black and white women between the ages of 18 and 30 years who were initially examined in 1985 through 1986. The study results accounted for risk factors such as smoking, low physical activity, alcohol use and demographic factors.

For each additional day/week of breakfast intake, there was a 5% decrease in risk of developing T2D (HR, 0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91 - 0.99).

Compared with participants who ate breakfast between 0 and 3 times per week, those who ate breakfast 5 times or more had a 31% reduction in T2D risk (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.54 - 0.88). They also gained less weight (0.5 kg/m2 less weight gain; P = .01).Those with higher diet quality had lower incidences of T2D, but breakfast frequency was more important, as it predicted T2D risk across diet quality score quartiles.

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