I was looking at a free magazine at the dentist office yesterday - Diabetes Health Monitor. A brief article said that skipping breakfast isn't a good idea. Here's their take on it:



I rarely eat breakfast within an hour of getting up - generally it's several hours, and sometimes I'm not really hungry until lunch time.

So this article concerns me. Any truth to it? This magazine - like other mainstream diabetes management publications - promotes way more carbs than I - or most people here - eat. One bit of advice in this mag was to eat peas. I haven't touched them since I read Dr. B's book!

From what I've read, it is true. But you hit the nail on the head with the "promotes way more carbs" observation. If you don't eat in a manner that spikes your BG, then it really shouldn't matter that your insulin is less effective. I read somewhere that if taking a glucose tolerance test, you need to eat at least 150g of carbs per day for several days prior to the test. Otherwise the test results will be unfavorably skewed. It appears that insulin needs a little exercise to remain at peak effectiveness. But unless you are having BG spikes from what you eat, I wouldn't worry about skipping breakfast.

I do eat breakfast most days. For the first 18 months it was mostly fat and protein. Recently I've added more carbs back to my diet and I now eat 10 to 15 net carbs at breakfast. My rate of weight loss has actually picked up since I started my new LC diet tweak and I wonder if having some carbs at breakfast might have something to do with it. What ever is behind it, I'll take it.

Ken's reply points out a more general consideration to be applied to all diabetic research, that is were the subjects eating a high carb diet or a low carb diet with clear descriptions of what those terms mean in the particular study. If something is called low carb how low is it really? Such terms really have to be precisely defined.

Jean

Jean - I should have thought of that. I've noticed so many "low carb" studies where the carbs were so much more than what many here eat.

Not being a scientist, I tend to be too impressed with things that sound sciency.

Very true, and the other question would be is the breakfast recommendation based on the assumption that medication is involved? Certain medications combined with a period of time with no food can result in hypoglycemia. I'm not sure about the statement that beta cells "forget their function." Particularly with recent findings that pancreatic fat hinders the function of beta cells (see Fung's latest blog post).

Bacon and Eggs....yes!
Eat breakfast
You wouldn't drive off in your car with an empty gas tank, would you?

Well, sort of. I've done an eating window for 2 years now, and do not eat until 2 pm, earliest. I have done a few 15+ mile hill walks during this period, fasted. True, I have not been diagnosed diabetic, but have had occasional high BS before I took up fasting and LC.

But I will be having a celebratory fry-up for my "break-fast" later today - bacon, eggs, sausage and mushrooms in butter.

A healthy life style always trumps the time when you eat breakfast. In reading similar articles it assumes poor eating habits the rest of the day. And its recommendations for breakfast are not great, like high carb and fruit juice.

A funny quote:
"After 8 hours of sleep, your body’s glucose levels will drop, starving your brain of energy. "

Here's another quote:

"Skipping breakfast has been clearly associated with weight gain and cognitive problems. Did you know that men who skipped breakfast were 15% more likely to have substantial weight gain during 10 years of follow-up and were 21% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus? The probable cause is insulin resistance at the cellular level, triggered by stress or adrenal dysfunction."

This article seems to use weak association words in place of references to actual research. It is proposing that insulin resistance is caused by "stress or adrenal dysfunction".

When I test my bs before breakfast, my bs is higher than after I eat - for clarity, I will add that the breakfast is fatty, no carb (some combo of bacon, eggs, avocado, cheese) Is this part of what you are referring to?

I think that's normal physiological insulin resistance that everyone, even non-diabetics, experience.

So much I don't know about diabetes. I thought the FBG number was normally lower than the post prandial number. Do you mean non-diabetics with IR/metabolic syndrome?
My diabetic-in-denial husband has said he is now ready to try to manage his diet, but he is in shock over what he considers the deprivation of meal items he considers staples, such as potatoes, pasta and rice. It would be easy if I did all the grocery shopping but he loves to shop for food and I am at home with my mom quite a bit since she has Alzheimer's and he thinks he is helping.
He has lowered his intake dramatically, but that is due to his leaving off the seriously sugary treats. He is struggling much more with the idea that he can't have what he considers basic foods. I have not yet taken his glucose reading since I didn't take a baseline number and it hasn't been very long. I would estimate he is under 100g/day but not by much.

Agree, I still have that pattern even with a year of fasting mostly 3 days a week.

Ann, you could explore all the new pasta, rice substitutes. I finally broke down and bought a spiralizer...that's fun..gift for DH if he is cooking?
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=457882
Trader Joe's started carrying Frozen Caulifower rice, but they are having a hard time keeping in stock. The usual frozen veggies into "mashed fauxtatoes", cabbage lightly sautéed with spices, flax breads (Wheat Belly has good ones, and nice pizza crust)