A food and information blog for gestational diabetes
Breakfast
Breakfast Ideas for Gestational Diabetics
Why is breakfast so difficult and important for a diabetic?
Breakfast is the meal that breaks your extended fast, so eating a balanced, low glycemic breakfast is vital to setting the tone and controlling your blood sugar for the rest of the day. With gestational diabetes, the carbohydrate allowance for breakfast is normally between 15 and 30 carbs. Most commonly, pregnant moms are told to stay within the 15 to 20 carb range. This is because you don't want to shock your blood sugar with too many carbs since you've been fasting.
The idea is to reintroduce carbs to your body in a gentle way. That means not only eating lower carbs, but healthier carbs. So foods like waffles, cinnamon rolls and even (sugary) smoothies aren't the best choices because they're all simple sugars that will process quickly and spike your blood sugar.
Arguably, the best thing to eat for breakfast for a diabetic is eggs, but that can be pretty repetitive, and many are looking for breakfast ideas with no eggs. We have delicious low carb recipes for you - some are no egg recipes - and more are coming!
But if you're wondering what you can eat for breakfast with gestational diabetes, stick to the heavy protein items like eggs, Greek yogurt, meats, nuts, seeds, etc. Items like cereal, biscuits, pancakes and other floury foods are what you want to avoid. BUT, we do have alternatives like diabetic biscuits, pumpkin pancakes, diabetic smoothie recipes and other foods that are normally high carb that we reworked to be lower carb and better macronutrient balanced. Be sure to check them out, especially the make ahead breakfast burrito casserole.
We also cover restaurants and fast food joints to show you how to eat out with gestational diabetes. Does IHOP have diabetic pancakes? Click to see your options.
If you want more information on what foods you can eat with gestational diabetes, and what you should avoid, check out Gestational Diabetes Diet.
