High fat bacon and eggs could be healthiest start to the day
　　A high-fat breakfast of bacon and eggs may actually be the healthiest start to the day, a new university report showed yesterday.
　　For the first meal eaten when you wake up appears to programme your metabolism for the rest of the day, researchers in the U.S. have found.
　　It means the maxim, 'Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper', could well be the best advice to follow to prevent metabolic syndrome, according to the University of Alabama at Birmingham study.
　　Metabolic syndrome is characterised by obesity, insulin resistance and other heart disease-risk factors.
　　The study, published online in the International Journal of Obesity, examined how different types of food affected the development of metabolic syndrome depending on when they were eaten.
　　The UAB research revealed that mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles.
　　In contrast, mice that ate a more carbohydrate-rich diet in the morning and consumed a high-fat meal at the end of the day saw increased weight gain, glucose intolerance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome.
　　'Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food intake, but nobody has undertaken the question of whether the timing of what you eat and when you eat it influences body weight, even though we know sleep and altered circadian rhythms influence body weight,' said study lead author Dr Molly Bray from UAB.
　　Dr Bray said the research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the animal's ability to respond to different types of food later in the day.
　　When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and seemed to stay on even when the animal was eating different kinds of food later in the day.
　　'The first meal you have appears to program your metabolism for the rest of the day,' said study senior author Dr Martin Young.
　　Dr Bray and Dr Young said the implications of this research are important for human dietary recommendations.
　　'Humans eat a mixed diet, and our study, which we have repeated four times in animals, seems to show that if you really want to be able to efficiently respond to mixed meals across a day then a meal in higher fat content in the morning is a good thing,' Dr Bray said.
　　The authors said further tests were needed to check that the positive changes in rodents also work for humans.