Is it really true that skipping breakfast will make you ill? Men who don't eat breakfast are 27% more likely to suffer heart attacks Eating a meal in the morning may protect against obesity But having a full English doesn't mean you'll eat less at lunch By Chloe Lambert Did you have breakfast today? If not, you're putting yourself in grave danger - at least, that's according to a slew of recent reports which link skipping breakfast to obesity, diabetes and even catching flu. In the latest study, U.S. researchers found men who don't have breakfast are 27 per cent more likely to suffer heart attacks or heart disease. The team at the Harvard School of Public Health said missing the meal put an 'extra strain' on the body. So is a morning meal really so crucial to health - and what's the healthiest thing to have? Breakfast blues: Men who don't eat the meal are 27% more likely to suffer heart attacks or heart disease There is nothing magical about breakfast that makes it particularly important for health, says Dr Susan Jebb, head of diet and population health at the Medical Research Council. 'I suspect you'd get the same risks - such as weight gain - with skipping lunch or dinner, but it's a less common behaviour, so people don't study it.' The pro-breakfast brigade would dispute this, pointing out that metabolic rate - the rate at which we burn calories - drops during sleep, and eating breakfast 'kick-starts' it again. Yet the evidence for this is not convincing, says Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at Glasgow University. In trials like this recent one on heart disease, you have to ask - does skipping breakfast put you at risk of heart attack, or are people who skip breakfast simply more likely to have unhealthy characteristics and be disorganised and mindless about eating? Blame your genes: If you struggle to eat in the hours after waking, it may have to do with your biological clock If you struggle to eat in the hours after waking, it could be down to your biological clock, which is determined in part by your genes. Around 10 per cent of the population inherit genes that mean their clock is set a little slower, so they struggle to wake up in the morning, and this can affect appetite, says sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley. When we wake, a number of processes begin to get the body ready for daytime, including the release of hormones that make us feel hungry. 'But if you're an "owl" - who likes to stay up late but finds it hard to get up in the morning - you won't wake up feeling hungry, and the idea of breakfast will be difficult. 'So don't force yourself to eat when you wake up at 7am. You'll probably find you start feeling hungry around 9am or 10am when you get to the office, so you could have something then.' However, Dr Stanley says irregular bedtimes can also cause your clock to be out of sync, so try going to bed at the same time each night and you might start feeling hungry in the mornings. Some experts question the importance attached to eating breakfast above all other meals, but a number of studies have shown that doing so protects against obesity. This may not be because it's breakfast as such, but because it's one of three important daily meals. 'If you don't eat breakfast you'll be starving by mid-morning so you'll snack - then you won't eat a proper lunch and you'll be hungry again mid-afternoon and need to snack, and so on,' explains Jane Ogden, professor of health psychology at the University of Surrey. Skipping breakfast can also influence the food choices we make throughout the day. Last year, a team at Imperial College London presented the results of a study involving 21 men and women, all around the age of 25, who skipped breakfast one day but then had it the next. On the day they skipped breakfast, not only did they eat 20 per cent more at lunch, but they were more likely to seek unhealthier, high-calorie foods. The researchers scanned volunteers' brains while showing them pictures of food and found activity in the orbitofrontal cortex - which is linked to feelings of reward - was especially responsive to foods such as pizza and chocolate. Dr Tony Goldstone, who led the research, said humans were primed to seek sugary, fatty foods after a period of fasting. However, while people who skip breakfast are statistically more likely to be overweight, eating it won't necessarily help you shed pounds. In a recent study at the University of Missouri, a group of teenage girls who usually skipped breakfast were observed as they started eating breakfast over three weeks. Although they felt less hungry through the day and had lower levels of hormones such as ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, the girls ate more calories overall when they ate breakfast. Overweight: People who skip breakfast are more likely to pile on the pounds Ever tuck into a hearty full English in the morning, believing you'll eat less for lunch? Stop fooling yourself. A 2011 study published in Nutrition Journal found people eat the same at lunch and dinner, regardless of what they have for breakfast. Dr Susan Jebb and her team at the Medical Research Council recently gave 33 overweight men and women breakfast three times - one contained around 700 calories, another was 20 per cent smaller and the third was almost half the size, at 300 calories. They found that the volunteers ate the same amount post breakfast each time. In other words, if you're trying to lose weight, a small 300 calorie breakfast should be enough to stop you overeating later. Examples of breakfasts that come in under 300 calories include a bowl of porridge with honey, a bowl of Special K cereal with milk, and a boiled egg with a slice of wholemeal toast. Dietitian Catherine Collins, who eats toast with spreadable butter and coffee for breakfast, offers a warning about seemingly-innocuous muesli. 'Be mindful of your portion,' she says. As mueslis and granola take up less room in the bowl than flakes, it would be easy to pour yourself 50g - which is actually a lot of calories. The worst ways to start the day include sugary cereals, pastries and white bread - which will cause a spike in blood sugar levels. If you have breakfast but nevertheless find your belly is rumbling again by 11am - and you're overweight - it could be a sign of insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, says Catherine Collins. Insulin converts sugar to energy in the body, but if your body has become resistant to the hormone, the insulin doesn't work as effectively, so the body has to produce even more. 'This means once the sugar from your breakfast has been metabolised there'll be a bit of insulin left hanging around, which keeps lowering your blood sugar, so you feel hungry again,' she says. 'If you're experiencing this and other symptoms of insulin resistance such as weight gain, especially around the middle, and feeling tired, see your doctor and make an effort to lose some weight, as this can stop it developing into full-blown diabetes.' Learn to love it: If you eat Weetabix for a while and expose your tastebuds to it, you'll start to enjoy it Perhaps you'd love to start the day more healthily, but the idea of a bowl of Weetabix makes you want to stay under the duvet. David Katz, director of Yale University Prevention Research Center, has some advice: 'Tastebuds are malleable little fellows. 'If you soak them in sugary and salty foods, they'll lose their sensitivity to it and you'll start to need more all the time. Conversely, if you change your food choices, little by little you'll rehabilitate them and within weeks you'll start to love foods that love you back.' Professor Sattar backs him up. I used to love Frosties, until I discovered both my parents had diabetes and I had to change my diet. If you eat Weetabix for a while, and expose your tastebuds to it, you'll start to enjoy it.' The idea of many fasting diets such as the 5:2 plan - where you dramatically cut your calories for two days each week - is to find a routine that suits you. Dr Michael Mosley, author of The Fast Diet, says skipping breakfast is fine if that's what works for you. Some people on the diet do like to skip breakfast but I prefer to skip lunch so that I can eat in the mornings and evenings with my family. A new fasting plan actually encourages you to skip breakfast. The Mini-Fast Diet, devised by Julian Whitaker, a U.S. physician, suggests fasting all morning and exercising before eating your first meal of the day at noon. You then eat sensibly for the rest of the day. The theory is because you only have to fast for a morning, and not a full day as you do on diets such as the 5:2, you'll find it easier to eat sensibly. Whitaker claims that in a trial of his diet, volunteers lost an average nine pounds after 12 weeks.