Is the jig up for intermittent fasting? Skipping breakfast may RAISE risk of diabetes, global study suggests

Intermittent fasting has been all the rage in recent years, but a new study suggests that skipping breakfast could lead to long-term health problems.

The global study found that those who ate later had a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

While the Spanish and French researchers noted that those who chose breakfast before 8 a.m. reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 59 percent.

In addition, eating a later dinner also seemed to increase the risk of the condition.

The study seems to clash with recent research, which has pointed to intermittent fasting, one of its hallmarks being skipping breakfast, lowering the risk of several chronic health conditions, including diabetes.

Intermittent fasting has also been linked to lower blood sugar levels, which helps burn fat and reduce disease risk.

“We know that meal timing plays a key role in regulating circadian rhythms and glucose and lipid control, but few studies have examined the relationship between meal timing or fasting and type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Anna Palomar-Cros, first author of the study.

The research team evaluated more than 100,000 adults, 79 percent of whom were female.

It’s unclear if they had underlying risk factors for diabetes, such as age, weight, and other health conditions.

Participants recorded online what they ate and drank over a 24-hour period over three nonconsecutive days, as well as when they ate each meal.

Researchers then averaged these over the first two years of follow-up and looked at the participants’ health over an average of seven years.

The researchers recorded nearly 1,000 new cases of type 2 diabetes during the study. They found that the risk was 59 percent higher in the group who regularly had breakfast after 9 a.m. compared to those who opted for an earlier meal.

“Biologically, this makes sense, because skipping breakfast is known to affect glucose and lipid regulation, as well as insulin levels,” said Dr. Palomar-Cros.

Dining after 10 p.m. also had a greater risk, and those who ate more frequently, an average of five times a day, had a lower incidence of disease.

This might suggest that popular intermittent fasting plans, which involve skipping entire meals, namely breakfast, may lead to adverse health outcomes.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body does not produce enough insulin or resists insulin, a hormone that regulates the amount of glucose or sugar in the blood.

While type 1 diabetes is believed to be caused by an autoimmune response and develop early in life, type 2 diabetes develops over several years due to modifiable lifestyle factors, such as diet and weight.

The research goes directly against other recent studies that have suggested that intermittent fasting may reduce the chances of developing diabetes.

This is according to a study published last year in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolismfor example, researchers studied 36 diabetic patients for three months. They found that nearly 90 percent, including those taking insulin, were able to reduce the amount of diabetes medication they were taking.

In addition, a 2017 study found that two weeks of intermittent fasting led to significant weight loss and improved glucose levels.

This new study was published last week in the International Journal of Epidemiology.