Can someone explain to me what "Is Associated" means in this context? I know there are always comments about correlation/causation here, but I genuinely don't have enough of a stats background to actually understand what they are claiming.

If they have tried to control for confounding variables (people who skip breakfast are generally more unhealthy/more likely to be drug users/more likely to smoke, etc), what are the methods they use? Are they reliable?

I find myself thinking about making serious lifestyle changes in response to these articles, but many of them contradict each other.