Scrambled eggs, or an omelette, with vegetables.Here are our top 5 blood-sugar-balancing breakfast ideas… Make sure any carbs you do include are fibrous, complex carbohydrates like veggies, whole grains and legumes. These nutrient-dense foods also take longer to digest, so they’ll keep you fuller for longer and curb those irritating mid-morning hunger pangs.īut what about ‘good’ carbs? If you’re serious about avoiding the slump, it’s best to go low-carb or at least avoid simple carbs like white bread, pastries and cereal. And as a couple of slice of toast for brekkie provides little to no micronutrients or fibre, it’s not exactly the most nutritious start to your day.Ī balanced breakfast that combines fibre, protein and healthy fats will give you sustained energy throughout the day and help to prevent blood sugar spikes. Bread is high in refined carbs and will cause your blood sugars to spike. What about toast, you ask? It might be the UK’s go-to breakfast, but toast isn’t ideal if you’re determined to avoid energy slumps. Even cereals marketed as ‘health foods’, like granola, muesli and smoothies, are often packed with sugar. Ideally, try to avoid high-sugar breakfast cereals, cereal bars, breakfast biscuits, sweetened instant porridge, muffins, bagels and ultra-processed breakfast drinks. But if you’re serious about avoiding the mid-morning slump, reducing and moderating your consumption of processed, sugar-packed, simple carbs at breakfast is key. We’re not going to tell you to cut out sugar or carbs completely. In fact, if you’re up for making some nutrient-savvy changes to your morning meal, they’re totally avoidable.Įating a balanced breakfast with fewer carbohydrates, but plenty of protein, healthy fats and fibre, will provide you with even, sustained energy throughout the day and prevent yawn-inducing blood sugar crashes. Mid-morning slumps may well be common, but they’re not necessary. Essentially, they set the day up for a repeated cycle of eating, spiking, crashing and craving. They give you a huge glucose spike first thing in the morning, followed by an immediate crash. Typical western breakfast choices-think toast with jam, bagels, a bowl of cereal or a granola bar on-the-go-are chockablock with refined carbs and sugar. While it might not be what you want to hear, mid-morning slumps are essentially down to what you’re eating for breakfast. It’s at this point that you start to feel tired, unproductive and craving more sugary and carb-heavy foods to pick your energy back up. This surge of insulin causes your blood sugar levels to plummet, leading to a ‘sugar crash’. The pancreas quickly gets to work producing insulin, in a bid to remove all the sugar from your bloodstream. When the glucose (sugar) floods your bloodstream, it causes what’s commonly known as a ‘sugar rush’, leaving you feeling wide awake, bright and ready to take on the day.īut this ‘sugar rush’ is short-lived. When you eat something high in carbohydrates, your body breaks the carbs down into glucose (sugar). The dreaded mid-morning crash is caused by turbulent spikes and falls in your blood sugar levels. So what’s the deal with the mid-morning slump and more importantly, how can you make sure that it never hits you again? What causes a mid-morning slump? This morning fatigue is caused by a crash in your blood sugar levels, leading to an intense feeling of tiredness, even after a good night’s rest. Sound familiar? You’re experiencing the mid-morning slump. Another round of toast, a chocolate bar or two, plus 2 or 3 strong coffees to see you through till lunch. Tired, barely able to keep your eyes open and dreaming of the moment your head can hit the pillow. You get to work, knuckle down and power right through your to-do list.īut 10:30 am rolls around and you hit a wall. You had 8 hours of sleep, woke up feeling fresh and even managed to fit in a couple of slices of toast and a coffee.
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