1. Introduction
Breakfast is often described as “the most important meal of the day” [
1], and while it is believed to contribute to good health and nutrition by providing essential nutrients early in the day [
2]; adolescents frequently skip breakfast [
3]. Many studies have reported the health benefits associated with breakfast [
4,
5,
6,
7]. A recent metabolomics study indicated that the total metabolic response tended to be larger in the morning than in the evening [
8].
Day-to-day physiologic activities, such as the sleep–wake cycle, feeding behavior, hormone release, and body temperature, follow a daily cycle called a circadian rhythm [
9,
10]. The circadian components of the body temperature rhythm and melatonin secretion are controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), with body temperature peaking in the late afternoon and declining to its nadir during the sleep phase in humans [
11]. In general, in human clinical research, the melatonin level is considered a gold-standard proxy for the SCN phase [
12]. Little is known about the effect of skipping breakfast, however, on the amplitude and phase of the body temperature rhythm in humans, because there are no reports of continuous measurement of body temperature [
13,
14]. In mammals, the central ‘master’ clock located in the SCN incorporates environmental information and synchronizes clock phases in peripheral tissues, i.e., peripheral clocks [
15,
16]. The clock genes comprise primarily two loops: a positive feedback loop and a negative feedback loop. The positive feedback loop consists of the
circadian locomotor output kaput (
CLOCK) and
brain and muscle ARNT-like protein 1 (
BMAL1) heterodimer, which mediates the transcription of tissue-specific genes. The negative feedback loop consists of the
period (
PER) and
cryptochrome (
CRY) proteins, which inhibit CLOCK:BMAL1-mediated transcription [
17]. In mouse studies, skipping breakfast for 4 consecutive days decreases the amplitude of the body temperature and leads to a phase delay in
BMAL1 in the liver and fat tissue [
18]. In rats, skipping breakfast for 2 weeks caused a 4-h delay in the body temperature surge and phase delays in
BMAL1,
CLOCK,
PER2, and
CRY1 in the hepatic tissue [
19]. Previous human studies which adopted a constant routine protocol reported that leukocytes, beard hair follicle cells, and whole blood possess an endogenous circadian clock, suggesting that
PER1–3 and
BMAL1 expression are appropriate biomarkers and that these tissues would be a useful source for evaluating biologic clock traits in individuals [
20,
21]. To our knowledge, the effects of skipping breakfast have never been evaluated in humans using this method.
The autonomic nervous system is also controlled by the SCN and acts as a bridge between the master clock and the peripheral clocks [
22]. Frequency analysis of heart rate variability can be used to evaluate the cardiac autonomic nervous system based on electrocardiography recordings [
23]. A previous study reported that the dynamic balance between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system quickly responds to environmental cues, such as fasting, to appropriately adapt energy metabolism [
24]. A single incident of skipping breakfast, however, does not induce changes in sympathetic and/or parasympathetic nervous system activity [
25,
26].
Daily meal frequency is influenced not only by biologic factors and habit, but also by social factors such as lifestyle and/or occupation, and is thought to influence weight change and glucose tolerance. Circadian clocks influence a broad range of biologic processes, including neuronal, endocrine, metabolic, and behavioral functions [
27,
28]. The effects of meal timing on the human circadian system, particularly the rhythms of body temperature and expression of clock genes, are poorly understood. Therefore, in the present study, we conducted breakfast-skipping experiments for 6 days, assuming that it would have a greater effect than a single incident of skipping breakfast. Although accumulated energy expenditure and substrate oxidation over 24 h were not affected by 6 days of skipping breakfast, their time courses over 24 h were significantly altered, and body weight unexpectedly increased [
29]. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of skipping breakfast for 6 days on indicators of circadian rhythms, such as the 24-h core body temperature, heart rate variability, dim light melatonin onset (DLMO), and clock gene expression in leukocytes.
4. Discussion
In this study, the effects of skipping breakfast over the short-term (6 consecutive days) on the phase of the core body temperature and clock gene expression in healthy young individuals were evaluated. On the sixth consecutive day of skipping breakfast, the diurnal rhythm of the core body temperature exhibited a phase delay. On the contrary, circadian rhythms of DLMO, heart rate variability, and expression of the clock genes (CLOCK, BMAL1, PER1, PER2, PER3, CRY1, CRY2, NR1D1, NR1D2, and DBP) were not affected by skipping breakfast. The first meal of the day was delayed by 5.5 h in the breakfast-skipping condition, and the phase of a biologic clock marker, i.e., the core body temperature, was delayed by 1 h.
Circadian clocks organize behavior and physiology to adapt to daily environmental cycles. Many studies report that chronic misalignment between the endogenous circadian rhythm and environmental/social rhythms is a significant risk factor for various disorders, including sleep disorders, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer [
27,
37,
38]. In particular, breakfast consumption may be favorably associated with dietary quality, body composition, and markers of chronic disease risk [
39,
40]. Most of the previous human studies [
41,
42,
43,
44] were observational and little is known about the effects of meal timing per se on human circadian rhythms; thus, there is currently no physiologic evidence to explain these effects in humans. Mealtimes and number of meals consumed differ greatly from culture to culture and through time. Indeed, the timing of food intake is a modifiable behavior that may influence energy metabolism, i.e., even when the energy intake is the same each day, eating during the phase of inactivity leads to weight gain, and is consequently a risk for obesity [
45].
The effect of skipping breakfast on the human core body temperature has not been sufficiently studied. Previous studies measured sublingual temperature, but it was not measured over a long period of time to assess the amplitude and phase of the body temperature rhythm [
13,
14]. In the present study, the circadian rhythm of the core body temperature exhibited a phase delay on the sixth consecutive day of skipping breakfast despite the conditions of the sleep–wake cycle being equal in both conditions. Although the mean value of the core body temperature was reduced in the morning when breakfast was skipped, the amplitude and mesor of the cosinor analysis were not affected by skipping breakfast. The present result showing a reduction in the core body temperature is consistent with findings from previous animal studies. The core body temperature is reduced in the nocturnal period by nocturnal fasting for 4 days [
18] or 2 weeks [
19,
46]. Moreover, the degree of the core body temperature reduction gradually increases and then stabilizes after 4 days of skipping breakfast [
46]. Although light is a powerful external cue to synchronize the organism’s biologic rhythms to the earth’s 24-h light/dark cycle [
17], meal timing is also an important factor. Significant differences were found in the core body temperature rhythm despite the fact that the light–dark cycle was equal in both conditions. Contrary to our expectations, the phase of the core body temperature was delayed by only approximately 1 h, even though in the present study the first meal in the breakfast skipping condition was 5.5 h later than that in the three-meal condition. A possible explanation for the smaller effect of breakfast skipping on the circadian rhythm of the core body temperature is that the light/dark cycles were common between both meal conditions. In addition, the rhythm of the core body temperature might have been masked by the thermic effects of the meal; the lack of a thermic effect of breakfast, and a higher thermic effect of lunch and dinner due to the larger meal size in the breakfast-skipping condition. Further studies are needed to investigate the thermic effects of the meal on circadian rhythms.
In the present study, skipping breakfast did not affect saliva DLMO, which is consistent with recent findings reported by Wehrens et al. [
21]. They adopted a 5-h delay in mealtimes, but detected no change in markers of the SCN clock (melatonin and cortisol). This finding suggests that mealtime, i.e., skipping breakfast and shifting the timing of the three meals, would not alter the DLMO, a reliable marker of the SCN clock [
47,
48].
Heart rate variability can be used as a measure of the activity of both components of the autonomic nervous system. Yoshizaki et al. [
49], recruited young male subjects with a habit of regularly skipping breakfast (meals at 13:00, 18:00, and 23:00; control group) and participants were asked to eat earlier (meals at 08:00, 13:00, and 18:00) for 2 weeks; early mealtime group). They reported that meal consumption earlier in the day resulted in a phase shift in heart rate variability in a 24-h period rhythm, and significant phase advances in LF power (−3.2 ± 1.2 h) and the ratio of HF power to total power (%HF, −1.2 ± 0.5 h, vagal nervous system activity) in the early mealtime group as compared with the control group after 2 weeks, using a double cosinor analysis. In our heart rate variability analysis, no cosinor techniques were used, because the multiple-peaked circadian patterns of the 24-h heart rate variability were not well-approximated by cosinor-type curves. Therefore, to detect a time shift in the heart-rate-variability circadian pattern, circular correlation coefficients between the two dietary conditions were evaluated. Our results indicated that 6 consecutive days of skipping breakfast had no effect on the phase of heart rate variability, differing from findings of Yoshizaki et al. [
49]. Possible reasons for the apparent discrepancy between the present findings and the findings reported by Yoshizaki et al. [
49] are: (1) meal timing differed at only one time-point (with or without breakfast) in the present study, whereas the timing of all meals was delayed in the previous study; (2) the double cosinor analysis could not be fitted in the present study, because the circadian patterns of the 24-h heart rate variability showed approximately three dominant peaks corresponding to the mealtimes, whereas it could be fitted in the previous study; and (3) the meal intervention period was 6 days in the present study and 2 weeks in the previous study.
In the present study, we evaluated diurnal changes in clock gene expression by sampling leukocytes eight times in a 24-h period because repeated blood sampling is feasible, and the clock genes in leukocytes exhibit rhythmic expression [
50,
51,
52]. Moreover, gene expression in leukocytes may provide an accessible window to the multiorgan transcriptome [
53,
54]. Jakubowicz et al. conducted a human study to assess the effect of a single incident of skipping breakfast on clock gene expression in white blood cells measured at 8:30, 12:00, and 15:30 [
55]. Compared with the value before breakfast (8:30), the expression level of
PER1 and
CRY1 was lower but that of
CLOCK was higher after breakfast (at 12:00). Even without breakfast, the expression level of
BMAL1 and
CRY1 was upregulated during this time period. Although their study suggested that the expression of some, but not all, clock genes was affected by breakfast, the clock gene expression between the two dietary groups was not compared. In the present study, the expression level of the clock genes in both the positive feedback loop (
CLOCK and
BMAL1) and the negative feedback loop (
PER1–3 and
CRY1–2) at 9:00 and/or 12:00 was higher than that at 6:00 regardless of breakfast intake. Regarding the postprandial response, the results may be different for the following reasons: (1) the reference time was different, i.e., it had been delayed 150 min (8:30) in the previous study; (2) the quantity and content of the meals differed, i.e., low energy intake and content of protein was high (carbohydrate was low) in the previous study; and (3) the sampling time was different, i.e., two points (0 and 210 min or 210 and 420 min) in the previous study.
Several reports suggest that meal timing exerts a pivotal influence on peripheral clocks and clock output systems involved in the regulation of metabolic pathways. Previous studies reported that skipping breakfast for 4 days leads to a phase delay in the expression of
BMAL1 in mouse liver and fat tissue [
18], skipping breakfast for 2 weeks leads to phase delays in the expression of
BMAL1,
CLOCK,
PER2, and
CRY1 in rat hepatic tissue [
19], and skipping breakfast for 4 weeks leads to phase delays in the expression of
BMAL1,
CRY1,
NR1D1, and
PER1~3 in rat hepatic tissue [
56]. A previous human study [
21] reported that compared with a regular meal pattern (meals at 07:00, 12:00, and 17:00), delayed meals (meals at 12:00, 17:00, and 22:00) induce a significant phase delay in
PER2 mRNA rhythms in white adipose tissue by 0.97 ± 0.29 h. An effect of skipping breakfast on the peak time of clock gene expression was not observed in the present study, although Kajimoto et al. suggested that feeding-induced insulin release resets peripheral circadian clocks in humans [
57]. Possible explanations for the lack of an effect of skipping breakfast on clock gene expression include: (1) the expression of clock genes was evaluated in leukocytes, not hepatic tissue [
18,
19,
56] or white adipose tissue [
21]; (2) there were large intra-individual differences, i.e., the Rayleigh test suggested non-uniformity of the acrophase in only 4 of 10 clock genes; and (3) it was a relatively short-term dietary intervention, i.e., 6 days. Further studies are needed to investigate the chronic effects of skipping breakfast.
The core body temperature is increased even without eating breakfast, but it was greatly increased with breakfast. Young people who tend to be night type could prevent the delay of their core body temperature by having breakfast without changing their bedtime. It may have been possible to partially prove the importance of eating breakfast.
Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, some tissue-specific responses of peripheral tissue clocks have been demonstrated [
21]. To generalize findings concerning the effects of skipping breakfast on the expression of clock genes in the present study, the effects of skipping breakfast on clock gene expression in other peripheral tissues should be evaluated. Second, the sample size was small, and the age of the subjects was limited. To generalize the present findings, experiments with young healthy women, middle-aged, and elderly are warranted. Third, the beginning of exposure to dim light might have been a bit late to assess DLMO, because we could not clearly show DLMO in 4 of 20 cases in the present study. Forth, habitual breakfast eaters were recruited for the present study, but there was some ambiguity in the inclusion criteria for breakfast eaters as subjects in the study. Lastly, we measured core body temperature, DLMO, heart rate variability, and expression of clock genes only on the sixth day of skipping breakfast, so we could not evaluate the time-course of the changes.