You’ve heard before that breakfast is the most important meal of the day…it gives you energy for the day and provides nutrients your body needs after the overnight fast. Still, about 20% of Americans find a reason to skip breakfast—despite the fact that doing so is known to make people overeat later in the day and gain unwanted weight.

Now, new research reveals yet another very important reason not to skip breakfast—it can mess with your metabolic function…and may even increase your risk for diabetes.

A TALE OF TWO MORNINGS
The new study involved overweight or obese women who did not have diabetes. (But even if you are not overweight or you are a man, there is important info here for you.) Most of the participants usually did eat breakfast—but the researchers wanted to compare what would happen on days when the participants had a morning meal versus days when they skipped it.

Although many studies rely on participants’ recollections of what they ate, such recollections often are inaccurate—so for this study, the researchers provided the meals and knew exactly what was eaten.

After eating standardized dinners the night before, participants visited the lab early in the morning on two separate days about a month apart. They were randomly assigned to either have breakfast or not have breakfast on their first visit…and to do the opposite on their second visit.

On the breakfast morning, participants were given a meal consisting of wheat flakes with milk, scrambled eggs and orange juice, which contained 25% of their daily calorie intake and a healthy balance of protein, carbohydrate and fat…on the no-breakfast morning, they just drank water. Then four hours later, everyone in the study—whether they had been given breakfast that day or not—received a lunch that contained 35% of their daily calorie intake.

Starting just before lunch, blood was drawn every half hour for three hours so that the participants’ blood levels of insulin and glucose could be measured. (Normally, blood glucose rises after a meal…the pancreas senses the rising glucose and releases insulin…and then the insulin draws the glucose into the body’s cells so it can be used for energy.)

Metabolic mayhem:
Those postlunch blood tests revealed some disturbing results! Compared with the days on which participants ate breakfast, on the no-breakfast days, they produced up to 39% more insulin, yet higher levels of glucose remained in their blood after lunch.

Both of these signs point to insulin resistance, a condition in which the body’s cells do not respond to insulin as efficiently as they should—meaning that more insulin is required to do the job, yet glucose levels remain abnormally high.

Now, the insulin resistance seen in this study was temporary—but it occurred after the participants skipped breakfast just one time. The concern is that habitually skipping breakfast might lead to chronic insulin resistance, which is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

Why might the effects of skipping breakfast be worse than those of skipping the midday or evening meal? No one knows for sure…but it might have something to do with the elevated levels of free fatty acids that occur after a prolonged fast, which can lead to insulin resistance, the researchers said.

Start your morning right: To keep your blood glucose and insulin levels on an even keel, researchers suggested eating a nutritionally balanced breakfast within two hours of waking up, aiming to consume between 20% and 35% of your total day’s calories.

Source: Elizabeth Thomas, MD, fellow in endocrinology and instructor of medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado. Her research was presented at the Endocrine Society’s recent annual meeting in San Francisco.

This year, we have a new group of amazing women challengers running alongside current senators Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, and Jeanne Shaheen: Alison Lundergan Grimes, Michelle Nunn, and Natalie Tennant. They’ll all need your support if we’re going to keep our Democratic majority next year.

The fact is, Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular incumbent in the Senate. And the Republicans in almost every other state are fatally flawed candidates who serve only their Tea Party base — most of them even back the Tea Party’s outrageous shutdown plan.

Make no mistake: we can win ALL of these states. Kay, Mary, and Jeanne are already off to a great start. As for our challengers, recent polling shows Alison leading McConnell by as much as six points despite McConnell having millions in the bank. Michelle and Natalie are both locked in extremely tight races as well. Whether these races stay close depends on how much support we can give them.

The Koch brothers know they can count on Mitch McConnell – a self-proclaimed “guardian of gridlock” who will filibuster any bill or block any nominee who will move our country forward. They want nothing more than for Democrats to lose the Senate and for McConnell to become the new majority leader. And, believe me, they will not go down without a fight.

We have to show them that our dedicated grassroots supporters can match their special interest and Tea Party donors dollar for dollar – each and every day until McConnell is forced into retirement and we are celebrating strong Democratic victories across the country.

It’ll be tough, but with your help, we absolutely can elect these amazing women and keep the Senate blue.

Best,
Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator

“At this time, we have found no evidence to indicate that the explosion was a deliberate act,” said Col. Maurice Sayama, acting chief of police.

The explosion caused minor injuries to three people and evacuated 600 to 650 hotel guests.

A one-story structure, near a pond and a swimming pool, could be seen with parts of its roof blown off, and nearby palm trees and foliage damaged.

Guests and hotel employees lined the driveway outside the hotel Thursday night, many of whom had little to no idea about why they had been evacuated.

Zaini Sebong, a tourist from Singapore, was standing outside the hotel in his bath robe.

He said he heard a “loud bang,” later followed by an announcement made across the hotel.

“It was something like, ‘We need to evacuate immediately,’” he said.

The governor’s communications director, Troy Torres, at the scene Thursday night, said bomb-sniffing dogs didn’t find any trace of explosives.

Investigators remained at the scene yesterday morning and received the assistance of federal and military bomb experts and investigators.

Inspection
Guam Fire Department personnel also were at the scene yesterday.

In the joint FBI-Guam Police Department statement, the agencies stated authorities will clear debris and concrete from the scene to access the blast area “and to check the integrity of underground liquid propane pipes that may have been the cause of the explosion.”

“Once the physical inspection of the site is complete, we should have a better idea of the blast’s ultimate cause,” the Guam police and the FBI said in their joint statement. “We hope to provide an update within the next few days.”

One Guam resident said yesterday he believes the propane lines are a possible culprit in the explosion.

John Mark Joseph, a Maina resident, said he was at the Hilton’s Tree Bar, near the explosion site, earlier this month and could smell the propane “blowing through the air.”