Bacon or Bagels? Higher fat at Breakfast may
be
healthier than you think
Newswise — The age-old maxim "Eat breakfast like a king,
lunch like a prince and dinner like a
pauper" may in fact be the best advice to
follow to prevent metabolic syndrome,
according to a new University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB) study.
Metabolic syndrome is characterized by abdominal obesity,
high triglycerides, insulin resistance and
other cardiovascular disease-risk factors.
The study, published online March 30 in the
International Journal of Obesity,
examined the influence exerted by the type
of foods and specific timing of intake on
the development of metabolic syndrome
characteristics in mice.
The UAB research revealed that mice fed a meal higher in
fat after waking had normal metabolic
profiles.
In contrast, mice that ate a more carbohydrate-rich
diet in the morning and consumed a high-fat
meal at the end of the day saw increased
weight gain, adiposity, glucose intolerance
and other markers of the metabolic syndrome.
"Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food
intake, but nobody has undertaken the
question of whether the timing of what you
eat and when you eat it influences body
weight, even though we know sleep and
altered circadian rhythms influence body
weight," said the study's lead author Molly
Bray, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in
the UAB School of Public Health.
Bray said the research team found that fat intake at the
time of waking seems to turn on fat
metabolism very efficiently and also turns
on the animal's ability to respond to
different types of food later in the day.
When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking,
carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and
seemed to stay on even when the animal was
eating different kinds of food later in the
day.
"The first meal you have appears to program your metabolism
for the rest of the day," said study senior
author Martin Young, Ph.D., associate
professor of medicine in the UAB Division of
Cardiovascular Disease.
"This study suggests that if you ate a carbohydrate-rich
breakfast it would promote carbohydrate
utilization throughout the rest of the day,
whereas, if you have a fat-rich breakfast,
you have metabolic plasticity to transfer
your energy utilization between carbohydrate
and fat."
Bray and Young said the implications of this research are
important for human dietary recommendations.
Humans rarely eat a uniform diet throughout
the day and need the ability to respond to
alterations in diet quality.
Adjusting dietary composition of a given meal is an
important component in energy balance, and
they said their findings suggest that
recommendations for weight reduction and/or
maintenance should include information about
the timing of dietary intake plus the
quality and quantity of intake.
"Humans eat a mixed diet, and our study, which we have
repeated four times in animals, seems to
show that if you really want to be able to
efficiently respond to mixed meals across a
day then a meal in higher fat content in the
morning is a good thing," Bray said.
"Another important component of our study is that, at
the end of the day, the mice ate a
low-caloric density meal, and we think that
combination is key to the health benefits
we've seen."
Bray and Young said further research needs to test whether
similar observations are made with different
types of dietary fats and carbohydrates, and
it needs to be tested in humans to see if
the findings are similar between rodents and
humans.
"We're also working on a study right now to determine if
these feeding regimens adversely affect
heart function," Young said.
About the UAB School of Public
Health
The UAB School of Public Health is a
community of scholars and professionals
working and teaching in varied arenas of
public health with the goal of fostering
research and best practices crucial to the
health of the United States and its peoples.
The school offers more than 20 areas of
study and manages dozens of research and
community-service centers.
About the UAB Division of
Cardiovascular Disease
The UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease
emphasizes excellence in patient care,
teaching plus basic and clinical research.
Clinical research is closely associated with
individual clinical cardiology services and
encompasses a variety of opportunities and
interactions with faculty associated with
numerous large federal- and
industry-supported clinical trials.
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