Skipping breakfast can lead to a ‘nutritional gap,’ researchers say

Columbus, OH — Do you skip breakfast? If so, you’re missing out on vital nutrients not only in the morning, but most likely throughout your entire day, according to a recent study from Ohio State University.

Researchers analyzed 2005-2016 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, assessing 24-hour dietary recall responses from nearly 31,000 adults. Findings show that omitting breakfast from your diet likely prompts daily deficiencies in numerous nutrients such as calcium (milk); vitamin C (fruit); and the fibers, vitamins and minerals found in fortified cereals.

“What we’re seeing is that if you don’t eat the foods that are commonly consumed at breakfast, you have a tendency not to eat them the rest of the day,” Christopher Taylor, senior study author and professor of medical dietetics at OSU’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said in a press release. “So those common breakfast nutrients become a nutritional gap.”

Overall, more than 4,900 of the respondents, or 15.2%, reported they had skipped breakfast. This group was more likely to consume more added sugars, carbohydrates and total fat throughout the day because, in part, of an increased propensity to snack.

Study co-author Stephanie Fanelli, a graduate student in the OSU College of Medicine, adds in the release that these individuals “were significantly more likely not to meet the bottom threshold of what we hope to see people eat.”

The study was published online April 30 in the journal Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.