Avoid starchy foods first thing in the morning
No one wants to start his or her day off with a blood sugar spike that can send you crashing later in the day. In the morning, your body goes into hormone overload to help wake you up, also called the “dawn phenomenon.”
When your hormone production kicks into high gear, your blood sugar levels rise rapidly. The dawn phenomenon can be a nuisance for diabetics because their insulin response can’t adjust properly to the surge in glucose.
“I notice that if I eat anything starchy in the morning mixed together with the ‘dawn effect’ my sugars go through the roof,” says Scott Soleimanpour, MD, who has type 1 diabetes, an assistant professor of endocrinology at the University of Michigan Health System.
Both he and LeBlanc start their mornings with low-carb breakfasts such as a single serving cup of Greek yogurt with a cup of coffee or a hard-boiled egg paired with a protein shake—breakfast foods that keep them full but don’t send their blood sugar levels skyrocketing.
