NewsMakers
Skipping breakfast may increase chance of kids and teens developing psychosocial health problems
It is not only important to eat breakfast, but it’s also important where young people eat breakfast and what they eat.

Young people who eat healthy breakfasts at home have better psychosocial health, shows a recent study in Frontiers in Nutrition. While previous research has reported the important role of a nutritious breakfast, this is the first study to look at the reported effects of whether kids eat breakfast, as well as where and what they eat. These results provide valuable insights and recommendations for parents and their children.
“Our results suggest that it is not only important to eat breakfast, but it’s also important where young people eat breakfast and what they eat,” said first author Dr. José Francisco López-Gil of the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Cuenca, Spain. “Skipping breakfast or eating breakfast away from home is associated with increased likelihood of psychosocial behavioral problems in children and adolescents. Similarly, consumption of certain foods/drinks are associated with higher (eg, processed meat) or lower (eg, dairies, cereals) odds of psychosocial behavioral problems.”
Breakfast matters
In this study, López-Gil and his collaborators analyzed data from the 2017 Spanish National Health Survey. This survey included questionnaires both about breakfast habits as well as children’s psychosocial health, which included characteristics such as self-esteem, mood, and anxiety. The questionnaires were completed by the children’s parents, or guardians, and the results included a total of 3,772 Spanish residents between the ages of four and 14.
Among the most important results, López-Gil and the team found that eating breakfast away from home was nearly as detrimental as skipping the meal entirely. The authors suggest that this may be because meals away from home are frequently less nutritious than those prepared at home.
The results also showed that coffee, milk, tea, chocolate, cocoa, yogurt, bread, toast, cereals, and pastries were all associated with lower chances of behavioral problems. Surprisingly, eggs, cheese, and ham were linked with higher risks of such issues.
Beyond nutrition
Although this study is limited to Spain, these findings are consistent with research performed elsewhere. The availability of nutritious breakfasts at schools would likely influence the results in some locations.
But other factors, such as the social and family support that young people can receive during breakfast at home, may also play a role in the observed benefits. The authors emphasize the need for further studies to understand the cause-and-effect relationships behind their observations, but they still suggest the usefulness of these results.
“The fact that eating breakfast away from home is associated with greater psychosocial health problems is a novel aspect of our study,” said López-Gil. “Our findings reinforce the need to promote not only breakfast as part of a healthy lifestyle routine, but also that it should be eaten at home. Also, to prevent psychosocial health problems, a breakfast that includes dairy and/or cereals, and minimizes certain animal foods high in saturated fat/cholesterol, could help to decrease psychosocial health problems in young people.”
NewsMakers
McDonald’s Philippines poised for growth after strong 2022 finish
From its first store opening in Morayta, Manila in 1981, McDonald’s Philippines continues to uphold global food safety and quality standards in the preparation and service of its food whether through dine-in, take-out, Drive-Thru, or McDelivery.

McDonald’s Philippines achieved record-breaking sales in 2022, surpassing its pre-pandemic (2019) sales performance.
Owned and operated by its Chairman and Owner Dr. George T. Yang and President and CEO Kenneth Yang— the quick service restaurant (QSR) giant attributes its performance not just to strong consumer mobility and post-pandemic behavior but to its continuous commitment to providing value for money, exciting limited-time menu offers, and an elevated omnichannel customer experience.
“McDonald’s Philippines’ strong performance in 2022 wouldn’t have been possible if not for the trust and continuous support of our customers all over the country. As we aim to consistently improve how we serve McDonald’s favorites to every Filipino, we are equally committed to providing feel-good experiences to our people [crew and managers] who make it all happen in our stores, and in communities where we operate for many years to come,” said Kenneth Yang, President and CEO of McDonald’s Philippines.
Feeling good, feeling safe
From its first store opening in Morayta, Manila in 1981, McDonald’s Philippines continues to uphold global food safety and quality standards in the preparation and service of its food whether through dine-in, take-out, Drive-Thru, or McDelivery.
This was further strengthened during the pandemic as part of its M Safe program, introduced in 2020.
The company doubledowned on food safety and quality efforts through continuous monitoring, and crew and manager training, which contributed to its thirdparty food safety audit results and customer perception scores on safety and trust.
Since the launch of M Safe, the company’s findings on ‘brand trust’ increased by 5.4% which contributed to increased dine-in guest count, lifting market share for McDonald’s in 2022.
Setting the standard for doing good
McDonald’s takes pride in its global learning and development programs from Crew Training to Restaurant Leadership courses to its Digital Academy. As one of the biggest employers in the country, McDonald’s Philippines believes that everyone has the opportunity to grow and succeed in the company which starts by first having job security. McDonald’s is the first quick-service restaurant in the country to practice a direct hiring policy, providing regular employment to all its crew members. In 2022, McDonald’s Philippines hired more than 17,000 new employees in support of its new store openings—employing working students regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
To date, the company has close to 60,000 employees in over 700 stores across the Philippines— with over 47,000 employees in Luzon, close to 6,000 employees in Visayas, and 5,000 employees in Mindanao.
Serving meals with kindness
McDonald’s also prioritizes its commitment to the communities where it operates. To serve meals to underserved families without access to food, McDonald’s Philippines launched the Kindness Kitchen, a flagship program of its charity of choice, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC).
In December 2022, Kindness Kitchen has served over 800,000 meals, a 33% increase from 600,000 meals served in May. The initiative aims to serve 1 million meals by the end of 2023.
By continuously improving the quality of food, providing growth opportunities to its people, and creating a positive impact in communities, McDonald’s exemplifies always being a step ahead in upholding its commitment to world-class excellence.
Yang reiterates, “It is these customers we serve, the people working in our restaurants and communities that we help that inspire and motivate us to be and do better. As many Filipinos continue to face challenges and recover from the pandemic, we want to be a place where they can experience feel-good moments. We want to be a company that Filipinos today and the future can trust.”
NewsMakers
Shinagawa links partnership with Fujifilm Philippines Inc.
Shinagawa Diagnostic & Preventive Care Center takes this a step further and encourages preventive healthcare by offering more thorough and advanced examinations with the support of Fujifilm Philippines Inc.

Early detection of diseases can aid in saving lives, giving patients more time to seek effective treatments that help lessen and possibly cure their symptoms. Shinagawa Diagnostic & Preventive Care Center takes this a step further and encourages preventive healthcare by offering more thorough and advanced examinations with the support of Fujifilm Philippines Inc.
Committed to upholding high standard medical services, Shinagawa announces its partnership with Fujifilm Philippines Inc, an expert in prevention and diagnostics technology, in a signing ceremony today at Shangri-La The Fort. Through the collaboration, Shinagawa’s Diagnostic & Preventive Care Center acquires Fujifilm’s endoscopy equipment to conduct advanced testing for the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which includes the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. This helps identify emerging diseases, such as stomach ulcers, gastrointestinal disorders, lung problems, and possibly tumors. The technology eases the detection process as it can spot even the smallest abnormality using endoscopes that place minimal stress on the patient.
“It is of utmost importance to conduct detailed examinations regularly to find diseases at an early stage, leading to preventive care. In particular, Fujifilm’s endoscopy equipment enables early detection of diseases that could not be found in advance by general medical checkups in the Philippines, and we believe this will lead to preventive medicine,” said Masako Uemori, President of Shinagawa LASIK and Aesthetics, Philippines.
Fujifilm Philippines Inc guarantees the prime condition and maintenance of equipment to ensure that all examinations produce in-depth results for more accurate diagnosis. The diagnostics technology company will also be conducting a series of training sessions for Shinagawa doctors and staff to fully regulate the use of the machines, assuring safe and accurate examinations. Through the synergy of Shinagawa’s Japanese-standard medical services and Fujifilm’s innovative healthcare equipment, improved quality of life, diagnosis, and prevention are now made more accessible.
The Shinagawa Diagnostic & Preventive Care will have its grand opening this April. Those who are interested in the center may check out Shinagawa’s official Facebook page @ShinagawaDiagnostic or the official website at www.shinagawa-healthcare.ph to book an appointment. Shinagawa Diagnostic & Preventive Care Center is located at Ore Central Tower, BGC.
NewsMakers
Training breathing muscles could have longer lasting benefits than previously thought
The strength gains to the muscles from five weeks of inspiratory muscle training (a form of weight training to strengthen the muscles used to breathe) persist for five weeks after the training has stopped.

Training the breathing muscles (primarily the diaphragm which plays a vital role in breathing) could have longer lasting benefits than previously thought. The strength gains to the muscles from five weeks of inspiratory muscle training (a form of weight training to strengthen the muscles used to breathe) persist for five weeks after the training has stopped, according to new research published in Experimental Physiology.
Stronger breathing muscles may improve the distribution of blood flow during exercise, which allows a person to undergo physical activity for longer periods before tiring and becoming less breathless. Enhancing breathing muscle function can potentially help people manage and slow down the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of lung conditions including emphysema and bronchitis. The disease is the third leading cause of death worldwide1 but is helped with pulmonary rehabilitation which can include inspiratory muscle training. Healthcare needs and the frequency of hospital visits depends on a person’s symptoms and how regularly they worsen. For people with weak breathing muscles, the training may help relieve the symptoms.
Muscles can lose function or weaken over time with disuse, particularly the respiratory muscles which may weaken faster than the other muscles in the body. The researchers from University of Waterloo, Canada foundthat the breathing muscles remain stronger after an equal amount of time without training, in this case five weeks. By observing similar muscle gains between weight training of the breathing muscles with that of the tibialis anterior (the muscle that runs down the front of the shin) indicates that the respiratory muscles can be trained like other skeletal muscles.
Paolo Dominelli, University of Waterloo, Canada, a researcher on the study, said, “Inspiratory muscle training can be beneficial to people with breathing difficulties and can be part of pulmonary rehabilitation. Knowing the time frame before muscle function loss occurs could help inform treatment programs, determining how frequently an individual would need to train and the length of the programme.”
Inspiratory muscle training also caused a positive change to the respiratory muscle metaboreflex, a process where the body restricts the blood flow to the limbs when the breathing muscles tire. Typically during exercise when the limb muscles are working hard, the respiratory metaboreflex prioritises blood flow to the breathing muscles to ensure breathing is maintained. As a result, heart rate and blood pressure rise. However, inspiratory muscle training reduces the metaboreflex, which lowers the heart rate and blood pressure. Reducing the metaboreflex may improves a person’s endurance during exercise, meaning they can workout for longer before reaching exhaustion. The researchers found that the effects on the metaboreflex were preserved after five weeks in the absence of training.
Paolo Dominelli said, “By showing that the strength of the breathing muscles persisted, along with the retained reductions in the respiratory metaboreflex after five weeks without training suggests that the training itself may not need to be continuous. We would need to carry out subsequent clinical trails to test the appropriate frequency and length of training required to evaluate how long the health benefits persist.”
A group of 16 young healthy adults were randomly assigned into either the control group (seven male, one female) or the experimental group (six male, two female). Over 10-weeks their respiratory muscle strength and muscle strength of their lower leg (via the ability to flex the ankle upwards) were tested in a laboratory, and their blood pressure and heart rate were measured at pre-training (zero weeks), post-training (five weeks) and post-detraining (10 weeks) while their respiratory muscles were working hard to elicit the metaboreflex.
Over five weeks the experimental group performed inspiratory muscle training twice a day for five days a week. This was then followed by five weeks of undergoing normal physical activity but no inspiratory muscle training (post-detraining). The control group did not take part in inspiratory muscle training. All participants engaged in regularly physical activity (approximately three days per week) throughout the 10-week study period.
Paolo Dominelli cautions, “Firstly, our study was done in young healthy individuals who are not limited by their respiratory muscles. Follow-up studies needs to be completed in those with lung disease such as COPD. Secondly, the main limitation of the study was the duration of the detraining (no training) period. It was only for five weeks, the same amount of time as the training, where we did not see any decreases in breathing muscle strength. Further studies should extend the detraining phase to see if the reduction in the metaboreflex still persists with decreases in muscle strength.”
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