No time for breakfast? Whip up a berry smoothie, and maybe prevent heart disease and diabetes.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you think skipping breakfast isn’t a big deal—who has the time, right?—you might reconsider that after hearing about some new research. In the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Australian researchers examined whether breakfast skippers are setting themselves up for heart disease and diabetes. In 1985, a national sample of 9- to 15-year-old children looked at the kids’ breakfast-eating habits. Twenty years later, researchers asked these same subjects (now 26 to 36 years old) about their breakfast habits, and tested the young adults for various health outcomes.

Turns out those who tended to skip breakfast as kids and adults had a larger waist circumference and significantly higher insulin, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels—all warning signs for heart disease and diabetes—than those who regularly ate breakfast as kids and adults.

Previous research has clearly shown other pitfalls of skipping breakfast: A meta-study of 47 individual studies found that people who skip breakfast are more likely to smoke or drink, more likely to follow fad diets, and less likely to exercise. The three most common reasons people mention for skipping breakfast?

1. Lack of time
2. Lack of hunger
3. On a diet

All these are understandable, but read on for remedies. If you skip breakfast because you don’t have time, consider that breakfast can be made in mere minutes. That’s right, in less than three minutes, you can blend up a smoothie, mix up yogurt and cereal or nuts, or make a wrap or breakfast sandwich to take with you. (We include some of these super-fast, easy breakfast recipes below.) Or simply brown-bag a piece of fruit, some nuts, and cubed cheese. Or berries, plain yogurt, and a hard-boiled egg.