Can Skipping Meals Cause Diseases: 15 Uninvited Side Effects

If you are one of those working people who often skip their lunch, giving excuses, beware! Skipping meals is a diet disaster and can cause many side effects and diseases. Click to know more!
Can skipping meals cause diseases and uninvited side effects: Cartoon illustration of corporate working man in suit with bag and women in business suit with laptop in hand running behind success without eating food, leaving it behind with empty stomach to reach the top of the stairs
Skipping meals isn't cool at all for the body. Let's alarm ourselves and keep the unknowingly invited diseases at bay!

Is it Okay to Skip Lunch?

15 Unknowingly Invited Diseases that Skipping Meals Causes to Body

Contents:

Fact

"I am too busy to serve my stomach!"

The majority of working people tend to skip their lunch, giving various excuses. Most of them replace their lunches with snacks and cups of tea or coffee. They give the excuse of eating a heavy breakfast, delaying it as late as possible to cover up the effects. If it doesn't work in their case, they go for a heavy dinner and eat it as early as possible to escape from the weakness.

Skipping meals is indeed a diet mismanagement.

Figures

  1. On average, people with the age group from 35 to 48 skip at least one lunch a week.
  2. America’s 43% of people find lunch the least important meal when it comes to overall health.
  3. 53% of Americans find them too busy to take a break for lunch.
  4. 60% of the population of Britons does not take breakfast daily.
  5. 25% of Britons miss their breakfast at least thrice a week.

Consequences of Skipping Meals: 15 Unknowingly Invited Diseases: Know What Skipping Meals Causes to Body

Consequences of skipping meals: A bread roll or roti roll stuffed with green leafy vegetables, paneer, and potatoes
Illustration of simple food!

How skipping meals is bad, unhealthy, and causes side effects, let's get enlightened! Here you are 15 consequences that the lunch-skippers welcome unknowingly:

Disturbed Weight Management and Obesity

Skipping meals causes weight gain: Meal skipping to lose weight leads to disturbed weight management and obesity (Illustration of a formal shirt-pant and tie wearing office-going man shocked to see his increased weight while standing on the weight machine in his home’s backyard)
Weight management is not a piece of cake. It demands all your attention and a lot of sweat! However, can meal-skipping help in weight loss?!

A weight-conscious person goes on dieting and imagines a toned body, unaware of the fact that it eventually causes weight gain. When we don’t eat for long, it turns hunger into craving. In this situation, the spicy, peppery, frozen, oily, and fried eatables attract more. Craving leads to overeating and insensible eating. This was we go for more calorie intake, which boosts weight gain.

A person with normal weight and health conditions can skip the lunch (sometimes but not often), but it can cause a problem for a diabetic person and pregnant or breastfeeding lady.

Thoughtful calorie intake is good for health, but cutting calories unthinkingly for weight loss has downsides.

Diabetes

Skipping meals causes diabetes: Illustration of a scared man who is resisting, denying and rebuking the diabetes-depicting purple-colored cartoon haunting the man while floating in air over his head in his room
Diabetes, "you also skip your meal, let's shake hands".

Symptoms

  • Metabolism disorder
  • Excessive thirst
  • Urine production in increasing amount

A body that performs normal functions, the production of insulin remains balanced and the level of insulin changes all the time. Such a body owns an automatic feedback system, that is, it follows the intake of carbohydrates and regulated the balanced level of glucose in bloodstreams.

Diabetic patients take injections to mimic the same process in order to maintain the level of glucose in the blood. This process of keeping the blood sugar level normal or near-normal saves a diabetic person from long-term complications.

Think, what can happen if one misses the meal, and a diabetic misses the dose of insulin? Skipping meals ruins the rhythm of the system; though in case of the occasional skip, you can hop both meals and insulin. Making it a strategy can result in serious consequences.

High Blood Sugar

What happens when you skip meals: Skipping meals causes high blood sugar (Illustration of a man testing his blood sugar level with some medical tools and the blood testing hands and device are shown in zoom)
Skipping meals can disturb Blood Sugar levels and show you shocking measurement results!

Symptom

  • Circulation of glucose in excessive amount in blood plasma

People, who skip lunch, tend to eat more in the next meal. The hunger then turns to starve and demands more carbohydrates than usual, which fulfills with the supply of grains, sugar, and potatoes. Such eatables increase the level of blood sugar and lead to a high glucose level.

This state results in damaging the small nerves and arteries in the kidneys, brain, feet, eyes, and heart over time. In normal conditions of diabetes, watch out if your blood sugar gets higher than 180 mg/dL in ordinary days and 130 mg/dL in case of fast. Take the record after two hours of eating.

Note: It is a different case if the doctor has set other targets for you to follow.

Instead of skipping the lunches, try to know the other causes of damage and control them by exercising and a healthy diet.

Dipped Blood Sugar Level and Hypoglycemia

Skipping meals on a regular basis causes dipped blood sugar level and hypoglycemia: A tensed and low-feeling man is sitting on a chair holding his head with hands in a depressed state and a concerned nice guy offering a glass of water on the table while standing near him. Sun-raises and plants peeking through room’s window in background
Do you often feel low? It's time to get alarmed!

Symptom

  • An abnormally diminished level of glucose in the blood.

In the absence of regular energy supply through food, the liver starts to realize glucose with the flow of blood around the body, which is provided by the stored glycogen of liver or newly synthesized glycogen from protein. It dips the level of blood sugar, affecting mental performance.

High Blood Pressure

Effects of skipping meals on a person: Skipping meals causes the high blood pressure (Cartoon illustration of a medical expert doctor testing the blood pressure of a meal-skipping guy with bp-testing tools whiles both sitting on the green table-chair. Beautiful indoor plants and a blue curtain in background)
illustration of blood pressure testing expert!

The drop in blood sugar level due to skipping meals makes your body releasing hormones to compensate for a low glucose level. It causes an increase in blood pressure and affects the arteries, making them narrow.

Headache

Skipping meals causes headache: a yellow shirt and brown pant wearing man holding his head and a green bottle of balm in a hand. The indoor plants and backyard plants outside the window of room in background!
"It seems skipping meals has shifted some weight from my body to head!"

Symptom

  • Pain in head that is continuous

Imbalanced blood pressure increases the chances of hypoglycemia, which can lead to headache migraines.

Nausea and Dizziness

Negative effects of skipping meals causes nausea and dizziness: Sitting on ground, a guy suffering from dizziness feeling like everything spinning round around and the stars and galaxies are rotating over the head while being in unbalanced and collapsing state. A blue night landscape in background!
"Are you also seeing the stars over my head?"

Symptoms

  • Inclination of sickness
  • Feeling of vomit

Light-headedness, headache, and nausea are some of the warning signs that your body needs food. In the absence of demanded food, a body uses fat to fulfill the need for fuel and starts to break down the muscles. It sounds good if you want to lose weight, but it shows adverse effects on long-term practice, making your body weaker. And a weaker body is never a fit one. Such practice comes with prolonged hypoglycemia, headache, sweating, nausea, and faintness.

Fatigue, Bad Performance, and Depression

Skipping meals causes disorders like fatigue and tiredness: Illustration of a meal-skipping, low-spirited man feeling low, tired, fatigue, and depression after his bad performance in office
"I am too tired to find even a proper place to sleep!"

Symptoms

  • The feeling of over-tiredness after mental or physical exhaustion
  • Extreme tiredness or weariness after repetition of stress

A skip of breakfast and lack of drink in midday time can cause fatigue. Refueling on time not only keeps the energy level stable (indeed higher) but also takes less energy to digest.

Researchers say that lunch-skippers turn to bad performers in schools and offices. Further, it causes depression and a lack of self-confidence.

Mental Health Problems and Seizure Disorder

Skipping meals causes side effects, mental health problems and seizure disorder: A cartoon illustration of a boy pressing hard his head because of severe pain in it. A lamp of light sparkling in background and room’s window showing the outside-greenery matching with the boy’s t-shirt’s green color
"Could you please fix my brain?"

Symptoms

  • The need for using force to execute an action
  • Sudden illness
  • An epileptic fit

When mental health starts to go down, it becomes a sensitive case. Sometimes the abnormal activities of the brain trigger muscular convulsions. The state of altered mental conditions causes such neurological problems. Such a seizure disorder is commonly termed epilepsy.

Sometimes, low blood sugar also causes seizures.

Not only skipped meals, but irregular meals can also trigger this disorder.

Anxiety, Depression and Drained Feeling

Skipping meals causes anxiety, anger, bad temper, depression and drained feeling: A man in orange t-shirt pulling is hair out and scratching head in anger while gnashing the teeth and looking angry, messy, and disheveled in appearance
Do you also often feel drained and depressed?

Symptoms

  • Unease of uncertainty
  • Nervousness
  • Stress and tension
  • Numbness

The Journal of Nutrition reveals a study on skipping lunch, which involved the physicians. The study says that lunch-skippers face irritation, a decrease in patience, frustration, and emotionally drained feeling. It causes a lack of focus, difficulty in concentrating, and a slower pace of making decisions. It results in depression and anxiety.

Acid Reflux, Gastritis, Stomach Pain, Stomach Ulcer, Diarrhea

Skipping meals causes acidity, acid reflux, gastritis, stomach pain, stomach ulcer, and diarrhea: Cartoon illustration of a suffering boy holding his disturbed stomach from both hands near a tree
"Oops, my stomach!"

Symptoms of Acid Reflux

  • Burning sensation and pain in the chest
  • Burping and nausea
  • Upset stomach with a feeling of fullness
  • Distressed upper abdomen
  • Sore throat, sore mouth, hoarseness, and cough

When we don’t eat and continue being hungry, the stomach produces digestive juices that are acidic in nature. They are released to break down what we eat, but when the stomach is not fed for a long period, the produced juices show their effect, eroding the stomach line. It results in acidity and ulcers, leading to gastroenteritis.

GERD, Indigestion, Gas, and Bloating

Skipping meals causes gas, belly fat, bloating, gastric trouble, GERD, indigestion and gas: A guy in white-t-shirt worried about his belly fat while holding his huge round stomach
"Bloating! Oh no!"

Symptoms

  • Discomfort and pain in the stomach
  • Difficulty in digesting food
  • Swollen stomach with food or fluid

(GERD: Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease)

The digestive juice is responsible for the proper functioning of the digestive tract. They work in the form of digestive enzymes and from the chewing process, they kick-start to perform their action. Missing meals not only causes a lack of nutrition but also decreases the formation rate of digestive enzymes. Their insufficient quantity results in poor digestion, triggering gas, and bloating.

Gastro-colic reflex also causes irritable bowel syndrome or diarrhea.

Heartburn

Skipping meals causes  heartburn and troubles: Cartoon illustration of a blue suit-wearing man looking down with concern towards the burning heart running fast because of catching fire and feeling heat of the heart-burn
Chic-chic boom! Fire..!

Symptoms

  • A feeling of painful burn behind or below the breastbone
  • Worsen Situation: Spread of pain from chest to throat and neck

Fatty and greasy food, late-night meals, and large portions trigger heartburn. Do you know skipping meals can also trigger heartburn? The obvious larger meals after ‘no meals’ stretch the belly, making it full. This stuffed feeling and stretched stomach pressurize the LES, the muscle-ring that prevents acids from moving in the wrong direction from the stomach. Sometimes, this too much pressure sends the stomach acids back up to the throat and causes heartburn.

Stinky “Hunger Breath” or Bad Breath or Chronic Breath or Sulfuric Stench

Results of skipping meals: bad breath, sulfuric stench, hunger breath, chronic breath (Cartoon illustration of the boss shouting with bad breath and two employees trying to escape from his stinky mouth’s bad smell)
Illustration of bad breath!
Oh God, may someone close the doors of this stagnant pool!

When you skip meals or keep fast, the chemical reaction of ketoacidosis starts. In this, the body chemicals break down and develop an unpleasant, odd fruity odor.

Second, an empty stomach reduces the amount of saliva production. Saliva helps to flush away the unwanted bacteria in tongue, gums, and teeth; less formation of saliva leads to dry mouth, which results in bad breath. Such mouth becomes a mansion of randy bacteria, who multiply exponentially.

Lozenges and chewing-gums keep the saliva flowing and thus help in eliminating the stinky odor of the mouth. Though, instead of products like chewing gum, it is suggested to take fruits or fennel (Saunf) for getting rid of this problem.

Skipping Meals and Cancer

Skipping meals increases risks of cancer: A boy reading skipping meals and cancer related researches on his desktop computer on table
Illustration of a man reading cancer-related researches on a desktop computer!

Some studies have shown that people, who are suffering from heart disease or taking chemotherapy for curing cancer, if skip some meals, then it helps in a better cure. Studies have demonstrated a declined explosion of cancer cells and in their case, the cure rate was higher.

But remember, here intermittent fasting or fasting in alternative days is practiced. Second, it is followed in specific cases and under medical considerations.

  • Surprisingly, skipping meals while pregnant can also boost premature labor or miscarriage due to malnutrition.

Now you know what skipping meals can invite. So, next time keep your eyes open about what, how much, and how many times you eat.

Eat healthy food to live a healthy life!

Hit the below link to read:
Dieting Results: 7 Unprompted Facts
Hit the below link to read:
10 Healthy Eating Habits to Inculcate Now
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