Even if you didn’t have diabetes you wouldn’t eat ice cream for breakfast, right? But when it comes to carbs, many of America’s common, quick breakfast foods – the ones we’ve been taught are healthy – are bigger carb offenders than ice cream. A serving of Ben and Jerry’s vanilla ice cream has 23 grams of carb. An eight ounce glass of Minute Maid orange juice has 26 grams of carb. At Starbucks, the Apple Bran Muffin which sounds healthy-ish has 64 grams of carb while the Apple Fritter that’s covered in icing has 59 grams. If you have a grande cappuccino at Starbucks you need to add in another 12 grams of carb to your morning. A serving of Special K cereal has 23 grams of carb, without the milk. Special K’s granola has 39 grams of carb per serving without the milk. A container of Dannon “all natural” vanilla yogurt has 25 grams of carb.
Breakfast is important. Loading up on carbs and sugar in the morning can make you feel sluggish by the time you get to work. Some good, quick breakfast ideas are: plain yogurt with no added sugar (great with blueberries and/or nuts or nut butter), a slice of low-carb bread with cheese, a hard boiled egg, an avocado… And consider trying your coffee with a splash of milk, not a cup.
Do you have other healthy breakfast ideas? We’d love to hear them.
I used to be a big cereal lover and it wasn’t until my first pregnancy that I begrudgingly gave cereal up…Now I eat eggs in all kinds of veggie filled variations, or go to my fall back-a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter-filling, tasty and low carb!
Old-fashioned oatmeal with cinnamon & nuts (technically a carb but slow-burn), egg & cheese, cottage cheese with cinnamon, nuts, and if you can take it some raisins.
I love those breakfast food suggestions. For some people who are used to more sugary foods in the morning do know that your taste buds can adapt to less sugar if you gradually decrease it and just stick with it. Suddenly you’ll find yourself perfectly content with the sweetness in plain yogurt with some fruit and nuts added. I know, I’m one of those who used to eat sweetened yogurt with added honey. It takes time to adjust but you do :)
Chicken.
Neither my wife nor I have diabetes, but we try very hard to act as good role models for our daughter who does, and for our other one, too, because we believe what you decide to eat is one of the most important decisions you make in the day, no matter what your pancreas thinks. Here are a few of our favorites: Fresh free-range eggs w/ spinach, feta cheese, and sausage or bacon (not chocolate covered, mind you!). Today, it came with a glass of veggies we’d juiced: kale, celery, carrot, apple, and a lemon. Homemade granola (34g, 1/2c,… Read more »