How Skipping Breakfast and Eating Late at Night Could Put Your Bone Health at Risk

Could breakfast or eat a late dinner really affect your bones? According to a new study, it is certainly possible.

Research, published on August 28 in the Journal of endocrine societyis the First to suggest a specific link between these food models and a higher risk of osteoporotic bone fracturesaccording to the authors.

Osteoporosis occurs when bone mineral density decreases, which makes bones lower and more subject to fractures. The disease affects 10 million Americans and is four times more likely to affect women, especially after menopause.

While scientists have long established smoking, alcohol consumption and the lack of exercise as risk factors for osteoporosis, the role of wider food diets was less clear – repressing researchers to study the effects of daily eating habits.

“The study strengthens the idea that lifestyle models can affect bone health, beyond individual nutrients,” said Theresa Gentile, MS, DR, CDN, spokesperson for the Nutrition and Dietetics Academy, which was not involved in research, Health.

To understand how eating habits and other lifestyle factors have an impact on risk, scientists have analyzed the data of 927,130 Japanese adults over 20 years old registered with a medical database called DESC. Participants fulfilled a lifestyle questionnaire during a health check and were followed for an average of 2.6 years to see if they have developed an osteoporotic fracture.

After having cracked the figures, the researchers found that:

• People who reported jump breakfast more than three times a week were 18% more likely to develop fractures.
• Those who said they Dinner less than two hours before bedtime more than three times a week were 8% more likely to develop fractures.

“We have also observed that these eating habits tended to regroup with other unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, low physical activity and insufficient sleep,” said Hiroki Nakajima, MD, PHD, the first author of the study and researcher at the Nara medical university in Japan, said Health.

If you tend to give up breakfast and dinner late, are the results worrying? Not necessarily, Experts agree.

Although the study is “robust”, according to Nancy E. Lane, MD, rheumatologist and professor of medicine at UC Davis which was not involved in research, it has limits. For example, it is has not measured other factors who may have influenced the results, Like the quantity or type of food that participants ate.

“The evidence shows that anorexia with low weight reduces the maximum bone mass, which is factor n ° 1 that you can modify to reduce the risk of fracture in the following years,” said Lane. “This information was not collected, but Food disorders are well known to reduce bone mass and increase the risk of fracture. »»

Another warning: the study is observational. This means that it can show a link between eating habits and the risk of fracture, but that cannot prove causality.

And while Nakajima believes that the results could apply beyond Japan-other research has shown that jumping breakfast and eating late is linked to obesity, diabetes and other conditions in many countries, she noted-Gentile stressed that the unique diets of Japan can limit the way the results can be applied.

Again, research is not final. But experts have some theories on how these eating habits could influence the risk of osteoporosis.

A possible explanation concerns the circadian rhythm of the body (or 24 -hour clock), which plays a role in bone health, said Lane. “It is possible that people who jumped for breakfast and / or ate a late dinner Less time to use these nutrients to reshape and form bones, “ she noted.

Skipping breakfast could also increase the levels of the cortisol stress hormone, has a negative impact on bone health, she speculated.

For the moment, however, the meal moment is not the main objective with regard to the health of bones. Instead, what you eat can be more important than when you eat it.

“In general,” said Lane, “we suggest a healthy diet with calcium, vitamin D, proteins and carbohydrates allow the bone to reshape and stay strong.”