Perhaps you have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but find you don’t have time or appetite for it. Or maybe you have been paying attention to the controversy among nutrition scientists as to whether eating breakfast really makes a difference. We have written about that here.
New research shows, however, that people who have diabetes should not skip breakfast. That’s the conclusion from a study that compared blood sugar and insulin levels after lunch and dinner on days that people were instructed to eat breakfast compared to the days that they were instructed to skip it.
What Happens When Participants Skip Breakfast:
There were 22 volunteers with type 2 diabetes in this crossover study. On the days when they were randomly assigned to eat breakfast their blood sugar, free fatty acids and other markers after lunch and after dinner were lower.
The researchers conclude that those who skip breakfast run a greater likelihood that blood sugar will spike after later meals and that their insulin response will be impaired. This is a particular problem for people with type 2 diabetes, who make insulin but do not respond to it appropriately.
What to Eat for Breakfast?
This suggests that a good breakfast is especially important for people with diabetes. What is a good breakfast, you might ask? For people with diabetes, it should be low in refined carbohydrates, especially sugar. That means waffles or pancakes with syrup, toast with jam or many cold cereals with sugar might be more harmful than helpful. A breakfast with protein and some vegetables or whole fruit seems to offer the best bet. Spinach omelet, anyone?
