To Skip Or Not To Skip Meals-Hazards To The Metabolism
January 3, 2008
Most people miss meals because they get busy or are trying to lose weight. But how you skip meals and the amount you eat at your next meal, can affect your overall health.
The scientific data on skipping meals has been confusing. In some studies, fasting has resulted in measurable metabolic benefits for obese people and in animal studies, intermittent feeding and fasting reduces the incidence of diabetes and improved certain indicators of cardiovascular health. Even so, several observational studies and short-term experiments have suggested an association between meal skipping and poor health.
In recent months, two new studies may help explain how skipping meals affects health.The most recent study, published in medical journal Metabolism, looked at what happens when people skip meals but end up eating just as much as they would in a normal day when they finally do sit down to a meal. The study conducted by diabetes researchers at the National Institute on Aging involved healthy, normal-weight men and women in their 40s. For two months, the study subjects are three meals a day. For another eight-week period, they skipped two meals but ate the same number of calories in one evening meal, consumed between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.The researchers found that skipping meals during the day and eating one large meal in the evening resulted in potentially risky metabolic changes. The meal skippers have elevated fasting glucose levels and a delayed insulin response-conditions that, if they persisted long term, could lead to diabetes.
The study was notable because it followed another study earlier that found that skipping meals every other day could actually improve a patient’s health. This study was published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine; overweight adults with mild asthma are normal meals one day. This was followed by a day of severely restricted eating, when they ate less than 20% of their normal caloric intake or about 400 or 500 calories a day-the equivalent of about one meal. Nine out of 10 study participants were able to stick to the eating plan. After following the alternate-day dieting pattern for two months, the dieters lost an average of 8% of their body weight and their asthma related symptoms also improved. They had lower cholesterol and triglycerides, striking reductions in markers of antioxidant uric acid. Markers of inflammation were also significantly lower.
The conclusion, say the authors of the more recent meal-skipping study, is that skipping meals as part of a controlled eating plan that results in lower calorie intake can result in better health. However, skipping meals during the day and then overeating at the evening meal results in harmful metabolic changes in the body.Excerpt taken NYT.
Skipping meals has become a trend among teenagers who think they know what they are doing. A waive thin figure will only have harmful effects are they get older. Eating small meals every two to three hours helps the metabolic rate as well as in the developement of mental and emotional fitness.
©Nayna, 2007-2008. All Rights Reserved.
Similar Posts
Comments
Got something to say?
