Friday July 26, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in Circulation suggests that eating breakfast may help prevent coronary heart disease, the number one killer in the world.

Leah E. Cahill, PhD from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA and colleagues conducted the study and found men who skipped breakfast were 27% more likely to develop coronary heart disease, compared with those who did not.

Previous studies have already shown that adults skipping meals were more likely to have excess body weight, hypertension or high blood pressure, insulin resistance and elevated fasting lipid concentrations, according to the study report.

Data used for the current study came from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study which involved 26,902 American men aged 45 to 82 years and free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline in 1996.  During 16 years of follow-up, 1,527 incident coronary heart disease cases were identified.  

In addition to the effect of breakfast on the risk of coronary heart disease, the researchers also found men who ate dinner late at night were 55% more likely to develop coronary heart disease, compared with those who ate dinner early.