Heavy Breakfast Best For Type 2 Diabetes?

Every month, a lot of research is published about the best foods to eat for type 2 diabetes. A balanced meal plan should include enough vitamins and minerals, protein, healthy fats and fiber to help you control your blood glucose levels and avoid diabetes complications. But did you now that how and when you eat can also impact your health?  A new study from the Wolfson Medical Center at Tel Aviv University in Israel has shown that eating a heavy breakfast but a light dinner may help people with diabetes avoid dangerous blood glucose spikes.

This was a small study. The researchers looked at 8 men and 10 women with type 2 diabetes. Each subject was being treated with either metformin (a common glucose-lowering medicine) or a controlled meal plan. They divided the subjects into two groups and gave them separate meal plans to follow:

• Breakfast Diet: People in this group ate 704 calories at breakfast, 607 calories at lunch, and 205 calories at dinner.

• Dinner Diet: People in this group ate 205 calories at breakfast, 607 calories at lunch, and 704 calories at dinner (the reverse of B).

After 2 weeks on these meal plans, the researchers measured the subjects’ blood glucose and insulin levels. They wanted to see how well their bodies were managing sugar. After 2 weeks, the groups were switched. When they were on the Breakfast Diet, the subjects had lower blood glucose and higher insulin levels at lunchtime. This means that their bodies were better at controlling blood glucose after a bigger breakfast. Though more research is needed to confirm these results, you may want to try having heavier breakfasts and lighter dinners to see how your glucose levels respond.

Be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before making any big changes to your meal plan.