Skipping breakfast can worsen the development of heart disease by affecting how the small intestine absorbs fats, according to a new Chinese study.
This finding could suggest that the ancient Buddhist discipline of missing dinner and fasting from noon to sunrise is a better approach than modern dietary trends that restrict intake to the middle of the day.
“Intermittent fasting regimens, including time-restricted eating (TRE), have gained popularity over the past few years due to their metabolic benefits,” the team led by Zhejiang University wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on October 19.
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The researchers found that while reducing the window for eating can have metabolic benefits, the time of day when food is consumed matters.
“A feeding pattern similar to skipping breakfast will cause intestinal epithelial cells to memory upregulate the expression of key proteins for lipid absorption, resulting in excessive absorption of lipids and exacerbating the development of cardiovascular disease,” study co-author Zhang Jian said in a post from the university on WeChat.
The small intestine is the main place from where nutrients from food and the microbiome are absorbed into the bloodstream. It is also where the body receives systemic nutrients from metabolic organs like the liver – our main source of energy in a fasted state.
The research team sought to find out how this “two-front nutrient supply environment” is affected by the mode and timing of nutrient intake, according to the paper.
In their study, mice were either given food, starved or fed intravenously, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract. Intravenous feeding is a life-saving clinical treatment for patients with intestinal failure, but it has been linked to impairment of the immune system and intestinal function.
“Differences in overall nutrient availability among the three feeding models allowed us to distinguish the preferential effects of each nutrient supply side,” the team said.
Nutrition supplied in the small intestine through eating food was found to better maintain the integrity of the intestinal barrier and produce fullness hormones within the body.
Goblet cells – which absorb the essential amino acid glutamine and help form the intestinal mucosal barrier to defend from microbes – were also found to preferentially absorb orally ingested glutamine within the small intestine, Zhang said.
When nutrients were only supplied by the blood through infusion there was an increase in intestinal fungus, which can lead to cell damage, according to Zhang.
Treatment with antifungal drugs was found to alleviate these issues in mice, and could be a potential clinical option for patients who require intravenous nutrition.
“We identified several regulatory effects of nutrient supply modes on the multifaceted functions of intestinal epithelial cells, including mucus production, barrier integrity and lipid absorption,” the paper said.
These findings could contribute to our understanding of how disruptions of nutrient supply modes can lead to obesity and disease.
They also support an ancient Buddhist fasting regime dating back to 5th century India where monks abstained from eating between noon and dawn the next day.
Today there are many versions of intermittent fasting, including restricting intake to a specific number of hours a day, or even fasting for a full day each week.
One of the most popular methods is called 16/8, in which a person fasts for 16 hours and eats within an eight-hour time frame – with many choosing to start their eating window at lunch.
Skipping breakfast has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in previous studies done in the United States and Japan, however the mechanisms behind why this occurs have remained unclear, the team wrote.
In their study, mice who were not given food in the morning ended up over-absorbing lipids and glutamine – but not glucose.
“This effect of skipping ‘breakfast’ appeared to be more marked than that of skipping ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’, suggesting a specific contribution of food consumption immediately following a period of resting inactivity in the sleep-wake cycle to metabolic homeostasis in the small intestine and the whole body,” the researchers said.
“We hypothesise that the deleterious effect of skipping breakfast on metabolism may have offset the metabolic benefits” of intermittent fasting regimes that restrict food intake to the middle of the day over one where food can be eaten until 3pm, the team wrote.
They noted that further study was needed to see if other nutrients, such as other essential amino acids, also followed the same patterns as glutamine and lipids.
More from South China Morning Post:
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