Individuals with the attitude of skipping breakfast and eating their dinner close to bedtime have outcomes after a heart attack. The finding of this new study was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology.

The highlight of the study discovered that individuals with the two habits had a four to five times higher likelihood of death, another heart attack, or angina (chest pain) within 30 days after hospital discharge for heart attack.

It would be the first time to evaluate these unhealthy behaviors in patients with acute coronary syndromes. The study observed skipping breakfast in 58 percents, late-night dinner eating in 51 percent and both practices in 41 percent.

The study enrolled patients with a particularly severe form of heart attack called ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Dr. Marcos Minicucci, the study author from Sao Paolo State University, Brazil, said that one in ten patients with STEMI dies within a year, and nutrition is a relatively inexpensive and easy way to improve prognosis.

The recommendation of Dr. Miniccuci is a minimum two-hour interval between dinner and bedtime. He added that the best way to live s to take breakfast like a king. The standard components of a good breakfast are dairy-products such as fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese, a carbohydrate, like whole wheat bread, bagels, and cereals, and whole fruits. Breakfast should have 15 to 35 percent of our total daily calorie intake.

The research examined 113 patients with a mean age of 60, and 73 percent were men. They asked the patients about eating behaviors on admission to a coronary intensive care unit. The definition of skipping breakfast is nothing before lunch, excluding beverages like water or coffee, at least three times per week while they defined late-night dinner as a meal taken about two hours before bedtime at least three times per week.

In Dr. Miniccuci's note, he discovered that the definition of late-night dinner eating was by the two-hour interval between dinner and bedtime, rather than eating late at night. But almost all those that participated in the study with this habit were late-eaters.

In some previous studies, people who miss breakfast and have a late night dinner are more likely to have other unhealthy habits like smoking and low levels of physical activity. Dr. Miniccuci added that their study shows that there is an independent connection between the two eating behaviors with poorer outcomes after a heart attack, but having a cluster of bad habits will only make things worse. Those that work late may be particularly susceptible to having a late supper and then not being hungry in the morning.