Breakfast Is the Hardest Meal

If one meal is defeating you, it is almost certainly breakfast. This is close to universal in GDM and there is a reason for it.

Insulin resistance is at its highest in the morning. The hormones that rise as you wake make your body least able to handle carbohydrate at exactly the point most people eat the most of it.

Now look at a typical Indian breakfast. Poha, upma, idli, dosa, paratha, cornflakes, bread, a glass of fruit juice, sweet tea. Almost all of it is carbohydrate, much of it finely processed, and often with very little protein alongside.

So the fix is not to eat less breakfast. It is to change what breakfast is made of.

Things that tend to help: reduce the carbohydrate portion and add protein — an egg, a bowl of curd, paneer, a handful of nuts. Two idlis with sambar and curd rather than four with chutney. Besan chilla instead of plain dosa. Skip fruit juice entirely, and take tea without sugar.

Fruit is often better tolerated later in the day than first thing.

Test one hour after breakfast for a few days while you experiment. Breakfast is the meal where a small change usually produces the most visible improvement in your numbers.