Q: What can I eat for breakfast if I have gestational diabetes?
A: This is one of the most common questions asked by patients with Gestational Diabetes.
Pregnant women either wake up very hungry, or nauseous and uninterested in food – this is sometimes related to morning sickness, but can also be due to not taking enough carbohydrates at bedtime to help them get through the night.
For many pregnant women, morning mealtime tends to be more carbohydrate-rich. There is a reason for this. Overnight, pregnant moms need to provide glucose (sugar) both for their baby and for their own needs (you still have to breathe, your heart still needs to beat and your brain still needs to function and all of these organs need sugar to fuel these activities). Normally, we store sugar in our bodies in the form of a starch called “glycogen”, both in the liver and in the muscle.
For most non-pregnant women, the amount of glycogen that can be stored is more than enough to get through the night. However, for pregnant women, glycogen often “runs out” overnight, and they wake up feeling famished, irritable, weak, and nauseated.
This is why judiciously taking some carbohydrates at bedtime in moderate amounts can really help with morning/breakfast needs. In general, we recommend a small number of bedtime carbohydrates mixed with some other types of nutrients, such as fiber, protein, and healthy fats.
Healthy bedtime snacks
- Handful of nuts
- Hard-boiled egg
- Low-fat cheese with whole-wheat crackers
- Baby carrots
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumber slices
- Celery sticks with hummus
- Air-popped popcorn
- Beans with brown rice
- Roasted chickpeas
- 100% sugar-free Greek yogurt
- Sliced apple with peanut butter
If you can give yourself a small number of carbohydrates with a healthy mix of proteins and fat, then you will likely wake up feeling much better, and less carb-starved. Now, if you try healthy bedtime snacking, and STILL wake up carb-starved, then make an effort to pick breakfast carbohydrates that have a lower glycemic index.
The bedtime snack examples above can also be combined with one another to produce a healthy, satisfying breakfast. Eggs are an excellent choice, but in our experience, many pregnant patients have a “turn-off” to eggs. In general, if you want to try eggs, avoid scrambled eggs, and go for boiled, soft-boiled, or fried eggs (for the healthiest diet, fry your eggs very slowly and at the lowest possible temperatures in canola oil, avocado oil, or olive oil)
Bed time snacks to avoid
- Fruit juices
- Sweetened cereals of any sort
- Sweetened yogurt
- Waffles/pancakes
- English muffins
- Bagels
- Bananas.
If you are going to eat fruit, go for berries (especially cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries), or apples, pears, and grapefruit. The easiest advice to follow is to select breakfast foods that have the lowest-possible glycemic-index (GI).
Low GI foods can give you the carbohydrates you and your baby need without causing the rapid rises in blood sugars that will complicate your pregnancy.
For some great information on applying GI to your pregnancy diet, check out these sites
Glycemic Index Foundation:
https://www.gisymbol.com/gi-pregnancy/
MDApp:
https://www.mdapp.co/glycemic-index-calculator-72/
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