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Hi, I'm Dr. Ken Berry, family physician, and in this short video let's discuss breakfast foods for diabetics. Let's talk about five really good choices and five really bad choices. Millions of diabetics, both type 1 and type 2, get terrible nutrition advice from mainstream media and from the American Diabetes Association. This advice actually perpetuates and worsens their diabetes, and so I'm trying to get some good information out there for diabetics about what you actually should eat for breakfast. That's what this video is about, and I'm going to give you reasons to back up that advice after each example. If you know a diabetic eater, type 1, type 2, or LADA, please share this video with them. You can share it on your Facebook page, in your group, everywhere you want to share it. The more you share, the more it helps me to help people.
Now let's talk about these five good and five bad choices. Diabetics listening to this, I want you to pay careful attention. I want you to use your glucometer or your CGM, your continuous glucose monitor, to verify what I'm saying. I don't want you to blindly believe what the American Diabetes Association says, and I also don't want you to blindly believe me. I want you to listen to your body, and the way you do that as a diabetic is to check your blood sugar. Thirty minutes after you eat this breakfast, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes for the first time you try it, compare the breakfast that I recommend with the breakfast that the ADA or other diabetic gurus recommend. Check your blood sugar at 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes after that meal. That's going to give you the answer, because if your blood sugar spikes up super high, it doesn't matter what kind of nutrition is in that food. That's a bad food for you as a diabetic.
Now let's get into these five foods. Number one good food is eggs. When you eat an egg or two or five, you get all the amino acids and all of the fatty acids, both of these being essential fatty acids and amino acids. That means you can't make them; you have to get them in your diet. Eggs are the perfect source for this. The more pastured and natural the eggs are, the higher the omega-3 content and the higher the vitamins and minerals. Eggs are the closest thing to a superfood or a multivitamin that you can have for breakfast, and you're going to have almost no movement of your blood sugar. I want you to verify that.
Number one bad food is oatmeal. Oatmeal is made of oats, and whether it's instant oatmeal or the kind of steel-cut oatmeal that you have to cook on the stove for three days, it is made of carbohydrates, made of a grain. All carbohydrates break down into glucose and fructose. Glucose spikes your blood sugar, and fructose makes you store fat in your liver. Both of these things are horrible for diabetics. There's no meaningful vitamin or mineral content in oats. All you can do to make oats palatable is add sugar, honey, or agave nectar, and all of these are going to spike your blood sugar even more.
Number two good food is avocado. Avocado has 500 milligrams of potassium per 100 gram serving. It also has only 8 grams of carbohydrates per 100 gram serving, and it's full of vitamins and minerals, great potassium content, much better than the number two bad food, which is a banana. Bananas are touted from the heavens as the ultimate source of potassium you can get in your diet. This is utter foolishness. A banana has 350 milligrams of potassium per 100 grams, and it has 22 grams of carbohydrate per 100 grams. That's going to spike your blood sugar sky-high, whereas the avocado will not.
Number three good food is bacon. If you want to get cured bacon, you can get the cheap bacon from China Mart, and that's also fine. You're going to be getting the full assortment of essential amino acids and essential fatty acids from bacon. If you get a pastured bacon, it's going to have even more of the omega-3 fatty acids your body needs, and it's going to have more vitamins and minerals.
Number three bad food is English muffins. Some of the nutrition experts out there seem to think that if a bread is harder to chew or tougher, that somehow makes it a better carbohydrate. English muffins are made from wheat. Wheat is all carbohydrate, and it breaks down into glucose and fructose. One raises your blood sugar, and the other puts fat in your liver. There is no meaningful nutrition in an English muffin. Please don't eat that, and remember, if you do try it, verify at 30, 60, and 90 minutes with your glucometer.
Number four good food for breakfast for diabetics is steak. Take any grass-fed, grass-finished steak, or the cheapest steak you can buy at China Mart. It is going to give you the full assortment of essential amino acids and the full assortment of essential fatty acids, plus tons of vitamins and minerals. Even the cheapest, worst-produce steak is full of vitamins and minerals. There is just no arguing that.
Number four bad food is muesli with berries. Muesli is basically raw oats that we call by different names, so you don't have to say, "Yeah, I'm eating oats again this morning." They soak them in a liquid, usually skim milk, to make them barely chewable, and then most people add some berries or a few nuts. The nuts are okay, but muesli and berries break down 100% into glucose and fructose. Those two things do not make a good breakfast, even though it sounds very European and very Mediterranean. It's going to spike your blood sugar, so please verify that.
Number five good breakfast food for diabetics is full-fat Greek yogurt with a good sprinkling of nuts. This is going to give you all the amino acids you need, all the fatty acids you need, plus quite a few vitamins and minerals. It's not a perfect breakfast food, but it's pretty darn good if you need some variety as a diabetic.
Number five worst food for diabetics, and I saved the worst for last, is cereal with skim milk. Any cereal that comes in a box on this planet is a terrible food for diabetics. I don't care what it says on the label or how big the heart-healthy label is on the box. It is crap. It is nothing but a grain that's been ultra-processed and ground up, with a few fake vitamins and minerals added back. Then when you pour skim milk on it, you're getting more sugar. The grains in the cereal and the lactose in the milk break down into glucose, fructose, and galactose. They are all going to spike your blood sugar, and the fructose and galactose help you store more fat in your liver, another bad thing.
I'm going to leave you with this parting thought: maybe you should just skip breakfast more. More and more diabetics are finding out that, contrary to popular opinion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, breakfast is optional. You can sip on some black coffee, unsweetened tea, or sparkling water, and you can do just fine. Any time you put off eating, your blood sugar actually goes back toward low normal, and the insulin you make endogenously or the exogenous insulin you inject goes down, because you just don't need as much insulin. That's a very good place for a diabetic to be, with a low-normal blood sugar and a low-normal insulin level. If you're wondering, "If I skip breakfast, I'm going to have hunger pangs," I have a video about that, and it will pop up here at the end of this video.
Please consider subscribing to this channel and clicking the little bell beside the subscribe button, so that every time I have a bright idea like this, you'll be one of the very first to know. Also check out my Instagram. Go to my Instagram account and look at who I follow. That's where you'll find the proper human diet, both for diabetics and non-diabetics. Alright, guys, this is Dr. Berry. I'll see you next time.