Morning Blood Sugar Too High? These Breakfast Foods and Drinks Help Keep It Steady
A dietitian explains why blood sugar rises overnight and what helps keep it balanced
Key Takeaways
- The dawn phenomenon can cause blood sugar to rise before you've eaten breakfast.
- Protein, healthy fats and fiber-rich carbs can help support steadier morning blood sugar.
- Coffee, unsweetened tea and low-fat milk are breakfast drink options worth considering.
For people who have diabetes, prediabetes or are watching their blood sugar, avoiding rapid glucose spikes is crucial. In most cases, spikes happen as a result of eating something rich in carbohydrates or sugar. The exception to this rule is first thing in the morning, when blood glucose levels can rise before you’ve had anything to eat at all. Read on to discover why this happens and what you should consume first thing in the morning to maintain balanced blood sugar levels.
Why your blood sugar levels are higher in the morning
When you first wake, you likely haven’t eaten for at least eight hours. So why does your blood sugar rise? “Our bodies have built-in mechanisms to help us start our day,” explains Kendra Haire, RDN, LD, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Leander, TX. “In the early morning hours, hormones begin to signal that we need energy. One response is that our liver naturally releases glucose (or sugar) into our bloodstream to provide energy to our cells.”
While the body needs this energy to get it up and running after sleep, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) explains that people with diabetes may not make enough insulin to counter this glucose release, causing a rise in blood sugar—something known as the dawn phenomenon.
An increase in blood sugar before bed, thanks to a large dinner or a sugary bedtime snack, can also persist until morning and result in a higher reading after you wake up, per the ADA.
How breakfast foods and drinks affect blood sugar
For anyone watching their blood sugar, but especially folks with diabetes, “it’s extremely important to eat a balanced breakfast meal that includes a good source of lean protein, healthy fat and fiber-rich carbohydrates to keep energy and blood sugar balanced through the morning,” says Haire. “Providing your body with a steady amount of carbohydrates will give your body the signal that your liver does not need to continue releasing glucose for energy.”
The best foods and drinks to curb morning blood sugar spikes
Meals like yogurt with berries and pumpkin seeds or nuts, eggs and Canadian bacon on a whole grain English muffin, and scrambled egg whites with veggies and avocado on a slice of whole grain bread will help balance morning blood sugar and keep your levels steady throughout the day, Haire says.
But it’s not just food that impacts your blood sugar—what you drink with breakfast also plays a role. If your go-to morning sip is coffee, you can rest easy knowing it’s good for your blood sugar, says Haire. According to a study published in Nutrients, people who drank two to three cups of coffee per day had lower glucose levels than those who did not. However, “those effects tend to be negated once cream and sugar are added,” Haire notes.
Tea is also a smart morning drink, according to Haire. Drinking unsweetened tea has the same effect as drinking water, which supports stable blood sugar levels. What’s more, a separate study in Nutrients found that compared to non-tea drinkers, people with prediabetes who drank tea regularly were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who didn’t drink tea.
“For some, low-fat milk may also be a good choice, as it naturally contains both protein and carbohydrate,” Haire says. “Blood glucose levels will stay steadier as it digests more slowly due to the additional protein content.”
What to avoid in the morning to steady your blood sugar
Also important: skipping fruit juice, especially in the morning. “Juices have the fiber and skin of the fruit removed, which means they will cause a more dramatic increase in blood glucose levels,” Haire explains. “You should also be mindful of sweetened coffee drinks that could have a surprising amount of hidden sugar.”
All told, a well-balanced breakfast paired with a sugar-free beverage will help steady your blood sugar levels to get you through the morning and the rest of your day.
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