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High-protein breakfast may reduce glucose spikes in type 2 diabetes
Consuming more protein at breakfast may help reduce glucose spikes at breakfast and lunch among adults with type 2 diabetes, according to recent study findings published in The Journal of Nutrition.
“As clinicians are recommending to their patients with type 2 diabetes to eat breakfast, they should also suggest that they consume more protein with that meal,” Jill Kanaley, PhD, of the department of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri, told Endocrine Today.
Kanaley and colleagues evaluated 12 men and women aged 21 to 55 years with type 2 diabetes who completed two 7-day breakfast conditions of either 500-kcal breakfast meals as protein or carbohydrate. An 8-hour testing day was conducted on day 7. Breakfast was consumed after an overnight fast followed by a standard 500-kcal high-carbohydrate lunch 4 hours later.
Jill Kanaley
“People often assume that their glucose response at one meal will be identical to their responses at other meals, but that really isn’t the case,” Kanaley said in a press release. “For instance, we know that what you eat and when you eat make a difference, and that if people skip breakfast, their glucose response at lunch will be huge. In our study, we found those who ate breakfast experienced appropriate glucose responses after lunch.”
Glucose concentrations were increased after both breakfast conditions (P < .05); however, after protein days, glucose concentrations were lower compared with the carbohydrate days (P < .05). Both meals revealed lower glucose concentration at 240 minutes after breakfast (P < .01). There was an elevated response for lunch glucose area under the curve (AUC) on protein days compared with the response after breakfast (P < .05).
Compared with protein breakfast, there were higher peak insulin concentrations with the carbohydrate breakfast (P < .05), but no difference was found between groups for insulin AUC. The second meal phenomenon was demonstrated with greater postprandial insulin AUC (P < .01). This effect was more pronounced on the protein day (P < .05), and breakfast-to-lunch insulin response increased by 11% on the carbohydrate day.
“The first meal of the day is critical in maintaining glycemic control at later meals, so it really primes people for the rest of the day,” Kanaley said in the release. “Eating breakfast prompts cells to increase concentration of insulin at the second meal, which is good because it shows that the body is acting appropriately by trying to regulate glucose levels. However, it is important for type 2 diabetics to understand that different foods will affect them differently, and to really understand how they respond to meals, they need to consistently track their glucose. Trigger foods may change depending on how much physical activity people have gotten that day or how long they have waited between meals.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: Kanaley reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.