Introduction
Breakfast is often referred to as the most important meal of the day, and for good reason. Eating a healthy breakfast can help to regulate your blood sugar levels, which is essential for overall health and wellbeing. In this article, we will discuss the most crucial breakfast habit for your blood sugar, and how it can help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. We will also provide some tips on how to incorporate this habit into your daily routine. By following these simple steps, you can ensure that your blood sugar levels remain balanced and that you start your day off right.
The Most Crucial Breakfast Habit for Your Blood Sugar
Starting your day with a healthy breakfast is one of the most important habits you can develop to keep your blood sugar levels in check. Eating breakfast helps to kick-start your metabolism and provides your body with the energy it needs to get through the day. Eating a balanced breakfast that includes protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats can help to keep your blood sugar levels stable and prevent spikes and dips in energy.
Choose Complex Carbohydrates
When it comes to breakfast, it’s important to choose complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are digested more slowly, which helps to keep your blood sugar levels stable. Examples of complex carbohydrates include oatmeal, whole-grain bread, quinoa, and brown rice. Avoid simple carbohydrates such as white bread, sugary cereals, and pastries, as these can cause your blood sugar levels to spike.
Include Protein and Healthy Fats
In addition to complex carbohydrates, it’s important to include protein and healthy fats in your breakfast. Protein helps to slow down the digestion of carbohydrates, which helps to keep your blood sugar levels stable. Healthy fats also help to slow down digestion and provide your body with essential nutrients. Examples of healthy fats include nuts, seeds, avocados, and olive oil. Adding a source of protein and healthy fats to your breakfast can help to keep your blood sugar levels in check.
Avoid Sugary Drinks
It’s also important to avoid sugary drinks such as soda, juice, and energy drinks. These drinks can cause your blood sugar levels to spike, which can lead to a crash in energy later in the day. Instead, opt for water or unsweetened tea or coffee. These drinks are hydrating and won’t cause your blood sugar levels to spike.
Conclusion
Eating a healthy breakfast is one of the most important habits you can develop to keep your blood sugar levels in check. Choose complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal, whole-grain bread, quinoa, and brown rice. Include protein and healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and olive oil. Avoid sugary drinks such as soda, juice, and energy drinks. By following these tips, you can help to keep your blood sugar levels stable and prevent spikes and dips in energy.
Having high blood sugar doesn’t have to mark the end of eating all of your favorite foods. You can still manage your blood sugar while enjoying delicious food, but it may take some intentional adjustments to find the healthiest eating patterns for managing your glucose levels.
For instance, starting your day off with a healthy, nutritious breakfast is a great way to work toward managing blood glucose, but what specifically can be done at breakfast to make sure you’re avoiding a blood sugar spike?
According to Amy Goodson, MS, RD, CSSD, LD author of The Sports Nutrition Playbook and member of our Expert Medical Board, one of the most crucial things you can do at breakfast to help you manage your blood sugar levels is to pair a high-fiber carb with some protein.
This is because both of these nutrients are vital for a healthy diet for those with high blood sugar because carbohydrates can cause a blood sugar spike if they’re not paired with digestion-slowing foods. Read on to learn more, and for more healthy eating tips check out The 4 Worst Breakfast Habits for Blood Sugar.
How pairing protein and fiber with your carbohydrates can help manage blood sugar at breakfast.
“Carbohydrates are a quick source of energy for the body and because of that are the fastest digesting macronutrient,” says Goodson. “And while it is true that higher-fiber carbohydrates (oatmeal, 100% whole grain bread, etc,) digest slower than more processed carbohydrates with added sugars (sugary breakfast pastries, muffins, some cereals, etc.), they still have the ability to spike your blood sugar when eaten by themselves!”
Thankfully, eating a delicious protein source alongside your carbohydrate of choice can help you manage your levels. “Protein digests the slowest and helps you get full faster and stay full longer after a meal. So, when you combine a high-fiber carbohydrate with a protein, you help stabilize your blood sugar after you eat,” says Goodson.”
Diabetes experts and researchers have also confirmed this pairing to be extremely beneficial. Although it doesn’t contain any carbohydrate, there is evidence to support that protein does not increase blood sugar levels and may actually lower blood glucose levels post-meal in those with type 2 diabetes, according to an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study.
To summarize, eating only high-fiber carbs will cause a spike in blood sugar—although not as high as eating simple carbs—but pairing it with protein can help lower these levels. That doesn’t mean you should avoid carbs altogether at breakfast, though. Skipping carbs can cause you to miss out on helpful levels of fiber. But together, a high-fiber carb and a protein make the perfect breakfast pair.
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Try these breakfast ideas
If you’re looking for some yummy protein and high-fiber-carbohydrate breakfast options, Goodson has some helpful ideas of where you can start.
“Consider starting your day with breakfast combinations like eggs with veggies and whole grain toast, Greek yogurt with berries and 100% whole grain cereal, oatmeal with nuts and seeds paired with a lean breakfast meat, or a smoothie made with cow’s milk, Greek yogurt, fruit, and nut butter.”