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Title: A clear difference emerges in hormone patterns following a standard mid-day meal in regular breakfast eating or breakfast skipping young women

Author
item FORESTER, SHAVAWN - University Of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nv
item WIDAMAN, ADRIANNE - San Jose State University
item KRISHNAN, SRIDEVI - University Of California
item WITBRACHT, MEGAN - University Of California
item Horn, William
item Laugero, Kevin
item Keim, Nancy

Submitted to: Journal of Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/23/2018
Publication Date: 4/20/2018
Citation: Forester, S.M., Widaman, A.M., Krishnan, S., Witbracht, M.G., Horn, W.F., Laugero, K.D., Keim, N.L. 2018. A clear difference emerges in hormone patterns following a standard mid-day meal in regular breakfast eating or breakfast skipping young women. Journal of Nutrition. 148(5):658-692. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxy020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxy020

Interpretive Summary: Many scientific investigations have been conducted to determine the importance of eating breakfast, but overall, there is no agreement in the scientific community that the benefits of eating breakfast include better weight control, reduced food intake, or improved metabolic health. We conducted a short study to compare women who habitually eat breakfast and those who habitually skip breakfast to determine if the there are differences in hormone patterns before and after eating a standard lunch meal. We found that breakfast skippers had lower blood levels of hormones that are associated with feeling satiated and higher levels of the glucose-regulating hormone, insulin. Although these results suggest that breakfast skippers might experience more hunger mid-day and less-than-optimal insulin action, longer studies are needed to determine if these differences between breakfast eaters and skippers have an impact on metabolism later in the day, or over time.

Technical Abstract: Background: Multiple hormones are involved in the regulation of food intake and glucose metabolism. Past intervention studies showed a benefit of eating breakfast on satiety but were possibly confounded by disruption of habitual meal patterns. Objective: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 32 normal weight women who were habitual breakfast eaters (Br-E) or habitual skippers (Br-S) to assess the multiple hormones, insulin, leptin, GLP-1, ghrelin, PYY3-36, and CCK, following a standard mid-day meal. Glucose and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) were included in our evaluation. Methods: The protocol required that Br-E eat a typical breakfast between waking and 10am, whereas Br-S had no breakfast meal. Blood was drawn 35 and 5 min pre-lunch and 5, 20, 35, 50, 110 min post-lunch. Results: Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a group differences for PYY3-36 (p = 0.001), with Br-E exhibiting higher concentrations throughout the test period. Leptin tended to be different (p = 0.08) between groups, with higher values for Br-S. Partial least squares regression analysis confirmed that these two hormones were different between groups and that insulin and CCK were different as well. Conclusion: We found differences in circulating gut and adipose-derived hormones between Br-E and Br-S measured mid-day, indicating that the breakfast habit influences hormonal milieu before and after the mid-day meal. These differences may be short-lived or they may impact metabolism later in the day. Higher circulating insulin and leptin observed in Br-S suggests that maintaining blood glucose requires a different orchestration of hormones when the breakfast meal is omitted.