A Finnish study has found that those children ages 6 to 8 who skip meals are more susceptible to become overweight and obese and have increase link to cardiometabolic risk.  

Aino-Maija Eloranta, MHSc, and researcher has revealed that the more a child is exposed to red meat, low-fat margarine, higher consumption of sugary drinks, and has lower intake of vegetable oil, children who skip meals are more likely to be obese.

The study called Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) was published at the Alpha Galileo.org by the University of Finland wherein a total of 512 Finnish girls and boys ages 6 to 8 were examined according to their dietary determinants, eating behavior and dietary habits.

In the study children who skip meals, cardiometabolic risk was also examined by tracking their fasting plasma glucose, waist circumference, fasting serum insulin, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and the mean of systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Te result of the study revealed that children who skip meals and consumed more protein are more likely to be overweight. Other factors to contribute to weight gain of children who skip meals include eating fast, uncontrolled eating behavior, lower satiety and emotional overeating, Science Daily reports.

The research also revealed that children nowadays consume unhealthy meals. Only less than half of the children eat complete three meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Researchers said that children focus more on snacks while small percentage only of them eat fruits, vegetables and berries everyday.

The study on children who skip meals also revealed that they have higher intake of salt, sucrose and saturated fat.  This results to lower vitamin D, fiber and iron than what is needed for children at their age.

The result of the study of children who skip meals was published in the International Journal of Obesity and European Journal of Nutrition and the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

Experts say that children must not skip meals and must be trained to eat regular meals to prevent being overweight and to be far from developing cardiometabolic diseases.