The study also indicates skipping breakfast "may predispose" girls to diets that are low in calcium and fiber, and that girls who routinely eat breakfast have a reduced body mass index compared with girls who are "infrequent breakfast eaters."

The study was conducted by researchers at Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Maryland Medical Research Institute; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; Northeastern University; St. Joseph (Conn.) College, Wesleyan University and Westat Inc., Rockville, Md. They examined food records for 2,379 girls, beginning at age 9 or 10, who participated in NHLBI's nine-year bi-racial Growth Health Study.

Among the findings:

• At all ages between 9 and 19, African-American girls consistently ate breakfast less frequently than white girls.
• Rates of breakfast consumption dropped from more than 77 percent for 9-year-old white girls and 57 percent for 9-year-old African-American girls to less than 32 percent and 22 percent, respectively, by age 19.
• At age 9, fewer than 1 percent of white girls and 2.5 percent of African-American girls skipped breakfast on each day of a three-day tracking period. But by age 19, more than 19 percent of white girls and 24 percent of African-American girls skipped breakfast all three days.
• Girls who consistently ate breakfast had a lower body mass index than those who skipped breakfast.
• Girls who consistently ate breakfast had higher fiber and calcium intakes.

"Based on the results of our study, we conclude that skipping breakfast becomes more frequent as children grow older and may predispose adolescent girls to diets that are inadequate in calcium and fiber,
'"/>

Contact: Kelly Liebbe
media@eatright.org
American Dietetic Association
1-Jun-2005