Low-carb breakfasts reduce sugar spikes in those with Type 2 diabetes

Eating a low-carbohydrate breakfast could help curb cravings for treats later in the day – a simple and powerful strategy not just for those with Type 2 diabetes, but for anyone looking to improve their diet.

For anyone living with type 2 diabetes, a disease that affects about one in 12 people globally, figuring out what to eat can be even more confusing because their bodies have difficulty processing sugars.

The goal of my research lab at
the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus is to research diet
and exercise interventions for the treatment and prevention of type 2
diabetes. We conduct human studies testing how different lifestyle
strategies impact blood glucose control and other health markers
important for the management of this disease.

What does our science say about some of these fad diets? What are some simple strategies that those living with type 2 diabetes can use to cut through the hype and improve their health?

The first is probably the simplest and easiest to implement: restrict carbohydrate-containing foods, like oatmeal and toast, at breakfast.

A reversed circadian rhythm

I have been using continuous glucose monitoring
for 10 years to study how diet and exercise influence blood sugar
control. From studying hundreds of individuals with type 2 diabetes, I
can point to one consistency: breakfast leads to the biggest glucose
spike of the day.

I always assumed this was due to the fact that typical Western
breakfast foods, like cereal, toast, oatmeal and fruit, are high in
carbohydrates.

Instead of waking up and being most glucose tolerant and insulin
sensitive early in the day, circadian rhythm is disrupted in those with
type 2 diabetes—so that their bodies are even worse at handling
carbohydrates in the morning. If they eat a typical breakfast they get a
very pronounced glucose spike.

As predicted, we completely eliminated the large breakfast glucose
spike by providing a low-carbohydrate breakfast consisting of an egg,
cheese and spinach omelet.

Not only that, blood sugar spikes after lunch and dinner were the
exact same regardless of the breakfast. So overall exposure to damaging
glucose spikes was improved and markers of glucose volatility were
better with the simple switch to a very low-carbohydrate breakfast.

We also discovered that both pre-meal hunger and desire to eat sweet
foods were lower at dinner on the low-carbohydrate breakfast day.

This suggests that eating a low-carbohydrate breakfast could reduce
energy intake and help curb cravings for treats later in the day. A
simple and powerful strategy not just for those with type 2 diabetes,
but for anyone looking to improve their diet.

It should be noted that encouraging findings are preliminary and we
don’t know if all low-carbohydrate breakfast foods would lead to the
same effects.

You might also be asking yourself, if breakfast glucose spikes are
such a problem, then why didn’t you ask participants just to skip
breakfast? We know from previous research that skipping breakfast is
probably not the greatest idea for someone with type 2 diabetes because
it leads to exaggerated glucose spikes at lunch and dinner, and may lead
to metabolic compensation —so that people eat more, or expend less
energy, later in the day.

Diabetes ‘remission’ with keto diet

The second strategy for those with type 2 diabetes in particular, is to follow a low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diet.

That means their blood glucose control is back to normal and they do
not have to take glucose-lowering medications anymore. It’s an
astounding and life-changing result for the many people who have become
dependent on daily medications like insulin or metformin.

Switching just one or two meals per day to low-carb
could be an attainable goal that maximizes the benefits while also
minimizing the potential risks for many individuals with type 2
diabetes.

In an age when pharmaceuticals are the norm for managing most
diseases, I’m encouraged to be discovering some simple alternatives that
can be tested in scientific research studies. It’s not every day that
we in the health fields see diseases seemingly reverse in our patients.

Because normal circadian rhythm dictates that humans are most tolerant to glucose
in the morning, this strategy might not optimal for someone without
diabetes. However, the lower feelings of hunger later in the day, when a
low-carbohydrate breakfast is consumed, might be attractive for lots of
people who are trying to control their weight.

We hope to test out some of these ideas in the coming years as we
continue our research on optimizing lifestyle approaches for type 2 diabetes.