Have trouble controlling your blood glucose? There’s an easy fix for that now, say researchers from Tel Aviv University–and all it involves is a simple, high-calorie breakfast.
According to the findings, which appear in the health journal Diabetologia, diabetics who ate a high-calorie breakfast followed by a low-calorie dinner were less likely to experience blood glucose spikes, which helped control their disease better. This is important, as repeated blood glucose spikes could eventually lead to a loss of brain cells, triggering a type of dementia called Alzheimer’s disease.
Now researcher Daniela Jakublowicz M.D. says that this dietary change should be recommended to diabetics in the future.
“We found that by eating more calories at breakfast, when the glucose response to food is lowest, and consuming fewer calories at dinner, glucose peaks after meals and glucose levels throughout the day were significantly reduced,” says Jakubowicz, a Tel Aviv University Professor of Medicine. “By demonstrating that a diet of high-energy breakfasts and more modest dinners is more effective in lowering overall daily post-meal glucose surges, we suggest that such a regimen is a powerful therapeutic approach for improving glycemic control and may potentially reduce cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetics.”
Recruiting a total of 8 men and 10 adult women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, researchers had them do the following: Eat a diet where most of the calories were consumed during breakfast, or eat a diet where most of the calories were consumed during dinner. Both diets put a large emphasis on carbohydrates, including bread, cereal, and granola bars.
Researchers then allowed them to consume this diet at home for six days, asking them back to the lab on the seventh day to test their vitals.
As it turned out, consuming a “heavy” breakfast helped improve their blood glucose levels–by reducing it by as much as 20 percent.
“Our objective was to test whether this meal schedule reduces postprandial hyperglycaemia [sic] (PPHG) in patients with type 2 diabetes by enhancing incretin and insulin levels when compared with high-energy dinner and reduced-energy breakfast,” write researchers. “High energy intake at breakfast is associated with significant reduction in overall PPHG in diabetic patients over the entire day.”
In addition to these findings, researchers discovered that how many calories they consumed didn’t make a difference. During both diet trials, all participants ate the same amount of calories, although when they consumed it differed. This proved that meal timing–and not the diet itself–made a larger impact on the stability of their glucose.
“It is not enough to tell the diabetic patient what he or she should or should not eat,” says Jakubowicz. “It is more important to emphasize that a more advantageous meal schedule should be followed.”
What This Means For You
Have trouble controlling your blood glucose? What you eat may not necessarily be as important as when you eat, according to the findings from this study. Make sure to ask your doctor before making any drastic changes with your diet.
Readers: Do you have diabetes or know somebody who does?
Sources:
A Breakfast of Champions for Diabetics – ScienceDaily.com
High-Energy Breakfast with Low-Energy Dinner Decreases Overall Daily Hyperglycaemia [sic] in Type 2 Diabetic Patients (Study) – Springer.com
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