Eating a first meal after fasting helps your body handle the next meal better. This is sometimes called the second-meal effect. It means that eating earlier in the day may help your blood sugar respond better when you eat again later.

The Second-Meal Effect

For people with type 2 diabetes, eating breakfast may help reduce the rise in blood sugar after lunch compared with skipping breakfast. One study found that blood sugar levels after lunch were much lower when people ate breakfast earlier in the day. Their bodies also released insulin more quickly after lunch. This may be because the first meal helps prepare the insulin-producing cells, so they can respond faster when the next meal is eaten.

What You Eat Matters

For people with type 2 diabetes, eating breakfast that includes enough protein may help the body manage blood sugar better after the next meal than eating breakfast that is mostly carbohydrates. Protein, fat, and natural gut hormones can work together to help the body release insulin after meals. This may help support the cells in the pancreas that make insulin.

written by Traci Arini, RD, LD, CDCES

References

Fasting Until Noon Triggers Increased Postprandial Hyperglycemia and Impaired Insulin Response After Lunch and Dinner in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Diabetes Care. 2015. Jakubowicz D, Wainstein J, Ahren B, et al

A High-Protein Breakfast Induces Greater Insulin and Glucose-Dependent Insulinotropic Peptide Responses to a Subsequent Lunch Meal in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes.

The Journal of Nutrition. 2015. Park YM, Heden TD, Liu Y, et al.Clinical Trial