Breakfast

[Holly Marie]

Hi everyone, weird enquire but what does everyone with type 2 eat for breakfast? Before my diagnosis I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch! But now I know I have to especially because of my morning metformin. I have been eating plain porridge but I am new to this and just found out about carbs and the porridge I’ve been eating has 23g!!! (If I’m reading it right 😳) so does anyone have any suggestions for a quick/easy breakfast for someone that hates breakfast xxx

 

[Northerner]

I'd suggest having a browse of the 'What did you eat yesterday' thread to see what sort of choices others make, and full of useful ideas for all meals 🙂 Remember, you may react differently to the choices you make make than others, because it can often be down to you as an individual how well you tolerate things 🙂 For example, the porridge is fine for a lot of people because it releases its energy slowly and gently over a long period, whilst leaving you feeling full. However for others it can lead to a rapid spike in levels and then either levels remain high for the morning or they fall back down later. The only true way to discover where you fit with some choices is to test as described in Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S. Of course, opting for very low carb choices will most likely (but not always!) be a 'safe' choice, but I always think you are better finding out your individual tolerances so that you retain maximum flexibility in your diet (your low carb choices may not always be available to you in some situations, so it's useful to know what alternatives you can go for without compromising your blood sugars 🙂 )

 

[Ljc]

You could try, Scrambled eggs , omelettes , yogurt and add some berries
It could also be that you tolerate porridge well, do you self test ? @# this will help you discover which carbohydrates you can and can’t tolerate well as we are all different in this respect.

 

[Holly Marie]

@Northerner thank you I will have a look through there now. I have noticed burgen bread comes up a lot but I have an allergy to all nuts and seeds which is a pain as I think toast would be my go to option! Anyway I’ll have a look through thank you x @Ljc I started off testing but am going to get a new meter because of the cost of the strips so I will try out your suggestions too and test to see what works for me. Thank you very much I never even thought of omelettes sounds nice thank you xx

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi Holly Marie, I'm going to stick my neck out here, but firstly the best breakfast (in general) for a Type 2 is one low in carbs. I used to have 2 hard boiled eggs, I would do a batch of 8 and then I had an extra 3 breakfasts already cooked ready to go (once shelled). I know several people who have eggy breakfasts - poached, fried, scrambled, herb or mushroom omelette or even bacon & eggs or (high meat content) sausage & eggs.

But since you are only having breakfast so as to be able to tolerate the Metformin - do you really need that metformin?
If you do need it, would it be OK at lunch time with a meal instead?

I have found that 2 things work very well for remission of Diabetes - and neither of them is medication!
1). A Low Carb 'Way Of Eating' (not a diet) - don't count Calories, just count and minimise Carbs and any excess weight tends to fall off for most people who try it
2). Time Restricted Eating aka Intermittent Fasting aka skipping Breakfast. This works well to complement Low Carb. Some don't skip breakfast entirely, but just have a mug of coffee with double cream instead.

Have a think about it. Metformin has very little effect on Blood Glucose anyway - much less than a Low Carb 'Way Of Eating'..

 

[Pine Marten]

I'm too fond of my breakfast (always have been) to do without it! I generally have one toasted slice of Burgen with either stirfried mushrooms with a couple of baby plum tomatoes/scrambled eggs/bacon & egg, with a mug (large Marauders Map mug from Harry Potter studio tour 🙂 ) of coffee. Occasionally jumbo oats, but I haven't had that for ages.

I sometimes have Hovis Nimble if Burgen has gone AWOL again, and that doesn't have seeds if you want to try it, @Holly Marie.

 

[Drummer]

If you only eat one meal a day then I'd suggest you take your tablets with that - the last thing you need is a huge wodge of carbs extra to what you normally eat. Metformin isn't something which acts on the food, it builds up fairly slowly so although you ought to take them with food if you can tolerate them at all, (I can't) the detrimental effects of 20 gm of carbs isn't going to be offset by taking a tablet with it. Maybe check with your prescriber to see if they might say cut out the tablet completely - low carb and fasting is a powerful tool for treating type two, far more impact that taking Metformin, which taking or not taking seemed to make no difference to me.

 

[Holly Marie]

Thank you for all the advice. I will see with my dr about taking it at lunch and then not having a breakfast. When I was diagnosed they put me on 1 metformin then quickly increased it to 2 then they said soon they’ll increase to 3! I thought it was just to get it down quickly then to change it. It was actually the dietician that put me up to 2 as I haven’t had an appointment with my dr since my diagnosis. I was only taking it with a breakfast because otherwise the tablet upsets my stomach and gives me horrible headaches. I am slowly losing weight since being diagnosed But I honestly just hate breakfast lol xx

 

[Drummer]

To get what down?
Metformin doesn't act like gliclazide or insulin, hauling glucose out of your blood - though many people seem to have been given that impression.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I'm a weird eater, but here's my current b'fast: extra-large soy flat white coffee with 30g of chia seeds added.

I use Bonsoy milk which is double-plus-yummy but relatively carby (tapioca syrup + "Job's Tears", an Asian grain) though less so than dairy milk. Using unsweetened soy milk would reduce carbs a lot.

Anyway, the way I do it: 320 cals, 14g "net carbs", whopping 15g of fibre, a huge 5.6 of omega-3 unsaturated fat, decent 18g of protein (with 30%-80% of the daily recs for the essential amino acids), massive amounts of Vit K, decent vits B1 thru B6 and folate, large quantities of most minerals. Plus the most essential food group: coffee!

All in one big cup.

 

[Neens]

All sound advice. We are advised to take Metaformin with food as it is less likely to give you the bad stomach side effects that some members here have posted about.
I was told by my diabetic health nurse that I needed to ensure I had fibre/soluble and insoluble in the weekly food plan. There are a wide variety of foods (I found out yesterday) that can give me this - one of them is oats and I can tolerate that carb and also need the long lasting energy to work through the morning. I only have plain porridge oats and add either pumpkin seeds or berries. The cereal element is only 12.5 (I sometimes make it with water), this is for a very small portion, a few mouthfuls 25g but I eat it with a teaspoon. My breakfast usually comes in under 20g carbs and that sets me up for busy days. If I have a day off I use the egg method 😉 usually boiled.

It is about finding what works for you. Also talk it through with your team at your next appointment.

 

[Holly Marie]

@Drummer I thought it was to help get my hba1c down as well as losing weight etc? I really don’t know I was diagnosed, given metformin then sent on my way I just thought that’s what it was. @Eddy Edson sounds delicious thank you for sharing although I have allergy to nuts and seeds I think I can have chai seeds!! I’ll try and see @Neens thank you for the advice also, I think you’re right I will make an appointment soon and talk it through x thank you all

 

[Drummer]

Metformin might have some long term effect on your ba1c, but by far the greatest effect is to stop eating more carbs than you can cope with and so avoid spikes after meals.

 

[Neens]

Metaformin reduces the amount of sugar your liver releases into your blood and increases the sensitivity of muscle cells to insulin. It decreases the amount of sugar absorbed into the body.