breakfast for type 2 diabetes · 10 min read
The best breakfast if your blood sugar is high (and why the classic Spanish one does not help)
The best breakfast if your blood sugar is high is the one with protein, some good fat and fibre, with the carbohydrate — if there is any — kept company rather than eaten on its own. It is not a list of allowed foods: it is an order.
Why does breakfast raise my blood sugar more than other meals?
In many people with type 2 diabetes, breakfast is the meal where blood sugar rises most: in the early hours cortisol and growth hormone go up, the liver releases glucose and insulin does not compensate in the same way (this is called the dawn phenomenon). It does not happen to everyone, and your meter will tell you whether it happens to you.
3 to 8in the morning is when those hormones rise, to get you ready to wake up, and the liver releases glucose.
What that means in practice: in many people with diabetes, the same plate raises blood sugar more at breakfast than at lunch. That is why some people eat reasonably all day and cannot understand why their numbers will not come down: sometimes the problem is in the first twenty minutes.
If you are only going to change one meal, start with breakfast. In many people it is where the same effort shows up most.
What is wrong with the classic Spanish breakfast?
Coffee with milk, toast with jam and orange juice: what half the country has for breakfast. It is not that it is «bad»: it is that it brings together, at an hour when many people already rise more, three things that raise blood sugar at once.
The usual one
- The juice: squeezed orange is glucose without the fibre that used to slow it down. Two oranges go down in twenty seconds and do not fill you up.
- Toast on its own: bread with nothing alongside it is digested fast.
- No protein: so breakfast does not keep you full, and by half past eleven come the hunger and the picking, the second problem of the day.
The same one, changed
- The whole orange, eaten slowly, which fills you up. It is the single best-value change of all.
- The same bread, with tomato, olive oil and ham or tuna: what you put on top is what really changes the curve. Genuinely wholemeal bread — the one made with wholemeal flour, not white bread dyed brown — rises a little less.
- Protein: the ham or the tuna already provides it.
Notice that no food is banned: there are three things that, together and at that hour, do what you did not want.
So what do I actually have for breakfast?
One with protein, some good fat and fibre, with the carbohydrate kept company. These five combinations are everyday food, they take five minutes and none of them needs anything odd or expensive.
| Breakfast | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Wholemeal toast with tomato, olive oil and ham or tuna | The same bread as always, but with company: the protein and the fat flatten the rise |
| Eggs (scrambled, boiled, as an omelette) with a little bread and a piece of fruit | Real protein; keeps you full until lunch |
| Plain yoghurt with no added sugar, with nuts and whole fruit | Protein, fat and fibre in one bowl, with no cooking |
| Curd cheese or fresh cheese with tomato and olive oil | Plenty of protein, very little carbohydrate |
| Last night’s leftovers, with no guilt | Half the world has breakfast like this and here it sounds odd. It can be one of the best, if dinner had vegetables and protein |
Can you see the pattern? All of them try to bring protein and some good fat, and in none of them does the carbohydrate travel alone.
Is this happening to you?
If you have been trying for a while and the number will not move, tell me. The first conversation is free and carries no commitment.
First call free · No commitment
What about coffee? And freshly squeezed orange juice?
Coffee, with no milk and no sugar, barely raises blood sugar by itself. Fresh juice does, and by quite a lot.
The coffee
- In some people caffeine slightly worsens the response to what they eat with it. A splash of milk barely changes anything.
- What raises it is the sugar you put in: two sugars per cup, three cups a day, every day, does count.
The juice
- Even freshly squeezed and with no added sugar: it is not a question of quality, but of the fibre lost in the squeezing.
- Whole fruit, on the other hand, is fine: you do not have to cut out fruit, you have to eat it instead of drinking it.
Can I eat bread, banana, oats or biscuits?
Yes to the first three, and biscuits occasionally. None of them is banned: what changes is what they go with and how much.
- Bread: yes, genuinely wholemeal is better and always alongside protein. On its own, it rises more.
- Banana: yes, whole and not too ripe; better with a handful of nuts or a yoghurt.
- Oats: yes, as rolled oats with milk or yoghurt and nuts; not the sweetened instant kind, and not with water and sugar.
- Biscuits: the ones sold «for diabetics» usually raise blood sugar almost as much as the normal ones.
- Fruit: yes, whole and with the skin on where it has one.
- Avocado, nuts, eggs and olive oil: yes, and they are among the things that help most at breakfast.
If you came looking for the list of what you can and cannot eat: that list is exactly what has you stuck. What moves blood sugar is not the food on its own, it is the combination, the time and the amount. I explain it in full here.
How long until changing breakfast shows?
In your blood sugar after eating, the next day: if you measure two hours after breakfast, the change shows straight away.
2 or 3 monthsare needed to see it in HbA1c, which is the one your doctor looks at, because it sums up that whole period.
Here you can translate your HbA1c into average glucose.
That said: changing only breakfast, without touching anything else, helps but is not usually enough. It is the first step because it is the best value, not because it is the only one.
And if I skip breakfast?
It suits some people and not others, and you will not know until you try it while measuring.
If you take medication that can lower your blood sugar, skipping meals is a matter for your doctor, not a decision to be made by reading a website.
And if skipping breakfast means you end up eating more mid-morning, you have gained nothing. I go into it in the article on intermittent fasting, with what the guidelines say and what they do not.
Pablo Berna Sierra · Nurse, dietitian and trainer
Nursing registration no. 15794 · Colegio Oficial de Enfermería de Zaragoza
Over 14 years practising as a nurse and over a decade working with people with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and excess weight. More about me.
Sources
4
- American Diabetes Association. «Facilitating Positive Health Behaviors and Well-being: Standards of Care in Diabetes». Recommendations on eating pattern, carbohydrate quality and fibre. View source
- GuíaSalud. «Guía de Práctica Clínica Diabetes tipo 2» (2019). The Spanish clinical practice guideline. View source
- StatPearls. «Dawn Phenomenon». NCBI Bookshelf. Why in many people with diabetes blood sugar rises more in the early hours and at breakfast. View source
- Nathan DM et al. «Translating the A1C Assay Into Estimated Average Glucose Values» (ADAG). Diabetes Care, 2008. The HbA1c-to-average-glucose equivalence used by the calculator. View source
Please note. This article is for general guidance and does not replace consultation with your doctor or the treatment prescribed to you. Do not change your medication on your own.