Who has never skipped a meal during the day for reasons of schedule, finances, or even voluntarily? If this is your case, this American study may now dissuade you: it reveals that eating just one meal a day is potentially associated with a higher risk of mortality.
The research covers 24,011 American adults over 40 and concludes that skipping breakfast is associated with a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, while skipping lunch or dinner is associated with a higher risk, higher mortality for all reasons.
The increased chance of dying may also be a consequence of eating meals too close together. This is what allows epidemiologist Yangbo Sun to confirm that “pBased on these results, it is recommended to eat at least two to three meals spread throughout the day“.
30% of survey participants claim they regularly eat less than three meals a day. It seems that the latter, according to the data, are more likely to be male, younger than the others, less educated and with a lower than average income. Meal skipping is also found to be more common among those who smoke, drink more alcohol, are food insecure and generally consume fewer calories.
For your health, eat at least three meals a day
However, beware of spurious correlations: this study does not establish a direct causal link between skipping meals and earlier death. It is not complete enough for that. However, it emphasizes that there is a connection between these two phenomena that deserves further investigation. The research team has already tried to neutralize several lifestyle factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption or food insecurity, and has since adjusted its conclusions.
“Our findings are based on observations drawn from public data and do not imply causalitysays epidemiologist Wei Bao from the University of Iowa. Nevertheless, what we observed has a metabolic significance.»
What he means by “metabolic sense” is that skipping meals usually leads to consuming more calories at once, which can lead to imbalances in the way our bodies regulate glucose and thus lead to a deterioration of metabolism.
“Our research provides much-needed evidence that Wei Bao concludedon the connection between eating behavior and mortality in connection with meal times and duration.What to question, possibly, all of our beliefs about the benefits of intermittent fasting.
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