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Keeping your blood sugar and HbA1c levels in check with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes requires paying close attention to your diet, particularly when it comes to carbohydrates.
That makes breakfast pretty challenging because unfortunately, most breakfast cereals are too high in carbs. For breakfast, you really want a nutritious and satisfying meal that won’t jeopardise your blood sugar control.
Let’s explore the best cereal options, comparing some popular high carbohydrate cereals in Australia, to lower carbohydrate alternatives that are better suited for diabetics. Plus, we’ll share a delicious breakfast recipe for you to try.
High Carbohydrate Breakfast Cereals
First, let’s look at some examples of high carbohydrate breakfast cereals available in Australia, along with their nutritional information per recommended serving size:
1. Kellogg’s Special K Original
- Serving size: 40g
- Carbohydrates: around 27.2g
- Fibre: 2.1g
- Protein: 7.7g
- Fat: 1.0g
2. Uncle Tobys Plus Antioxidants
- Serving size: 40g
- Carbohydrates: 27.8g
- Fibre: 4.8g
- Protein: 3.0g
- Fat: 0.6g
3. Carman’s Classic Fruit & Nut Muesli
- Serving size: 45g
- Carbohydrates: 23.8g
- Fibre: 4.7g
- Protein: 5.5g
- Fat: 9.0g
4. Kellogg’s Frosties
- Serving size: 30g
- Carbohydrates: 27.0g
- Fibre: 0.6g
- Protein: 1.4g
- Fat: 0.3g
5. Sanitarium Weet-Bix
- Serving size: 2 biscuits (31g)
- Carbohydrates: 20.4g
- Fibre: 4g
- Protein: 3.8g
- Fat: 0.4g
You can see by the nutrition values above that these cereals range from 20.4g up to 27.8g – they are high in carbs!
While these cereals may be ‘popular’ choices, their high carbohydrate content makes them unsuitable for people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes.
Plus, think about what usually goes on top of cereals – fruit, milk, honey or sugar – all of which add to the carbohydrate content.
We recommend a maximum of 25 grams of carbohydrate per meal, so these cereals are too high to fit into our proven T2Diet recommendations.
Low Carbohydrate Breakfast Cereals
There are a few lower carbohydrate cereal alternatives available in Australia that people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes can enjoy without causing significant blood sugar fluctuations.
Here’s a few examples:
1. Farmer Jo Gluten Free Keto Granola with Cinnamon Spice
- Serving size: 50g
- Carbohydrates: 5.1g
- Fibre: 10.1g
- Protein: 8.9g
- Fat: 27.1g
2. The Monday Food Co Sweet Crunchy Macadamia Clusters
- Serving size: 60g
- Carbohydrates: 7.8gFibre: 5.2g
- Protein: 7.7g
- Fat: 28.7g
3. Blue Frog Keto Almond, Peanut & Raspberry Cereal
- Serving size: 40g
- Carbohydrates: 4.4g
- Fibre: 7.2g
- Protein: 8.9g
- Fat: 19.6g
What About Low Sugar Cereals For Diabetics?
Don’t be fooled by ‘front-of-pack’ marketing and the word ‘low sugar.’
Weet-Bix are low in sugar but they still contain 20.4g carbs per 2 biscuits.
Carman’s have a range of ‘low sugar’ cereals, such as Carman’s Low Sugar Granola Raspberry & Coconut – it still has 20.1g of carbs. One cup of full fat cow’s milk adds about 12g extra carbs, so you’d be pushing up to 32.1g carbs for the meal. We don’t recommend that.
Special K lower sugar is still 26g of carbs. You get the picture – low sugar is not lower carbohydrate and on a food label you want to focus on the total carbs. You can ignore sugar because it’s included in the carbohydrate amount.
What About Oats or Oatmeal For Breakfast?
Questions around oats and oatmeal are something we get a lot. To put it plain and simple: we generally recommend to minimise or avoid oats and oatmeal.
That’s because these foods are relatively high in carbohydrates. One third of a cup of rolled oats contains about 17g of carbs. One cup of oatmeal contains around 25g carbs.
What Are The Best Breakfast Cereals For Diabetics?
When it comes to the best cereal for diabetics in Australia, it’s going to be a cereal low in carbohydrates; a cereal that is generally made with ingredients such as nuts, seeds, coconut, or other lower carb ingredients.
In terms of store-bought options, you can choose from the few listed above. Yes, unfortunately at this stage, there are only a few; and the downfall about these lower carb store-bought options is they tend to be pretty pricey.
Alternatively, it can be better and cheaper to make your own cereal.
Here’s a delicious low carb breakfast cereal recipe you can try:
Granola
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 42 g almonds – equiv. to 1/4 cup
- 42 g hazelnuts – equiv. to 1/4 cup
- 42 g pecans – equiv. to 1/4 cup
- 28 g pumpkin seeds (pepita) – equiv. to 2 Tablespoon
- 28 g sunflower seeds – equiv. to 2 Tablespoon
- 28 g ground flaxseed meal – equiv. to 3 Tablespoon
Wet ingredients
- 1 egg whites
- 2-3 tsp natvia granular sweetener – or your preferred sweetener
- 3 Tablespoon butter – melted
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Extras
- 1/4 cup blueberries – max. per serve
- 1/4- 1/2 cup milk – per serve
- baking paper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan forced), 180°C (conventional).
- Place all the dry ingredients into a food processor and blend for 30 seconds to a minute until the nuts and seeds are ground but still contain chunky bits.
- Mix the wet ingredients together and add the the dry ingredients, blending for 10 seconds until combined. It will make a sticky mixture, almost like a dough.
- Place a piece of baking paper on a baking tray. Spread the granola across the tray and place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Allow to cool, then use your hands to ‘unclump’ the granola – not too much, as you want some of it a little crumbled and some left in larger clumps.
- Store in an airtight jar. When ready to serve, place granola in a bowl (approx. 3/4 cup per serve), pour on some milk of your choice (cow, almond, coconut, unsweetened soy), then top with a few berries (blueberries, strawberries or raspberries).
Notes
Be sure you give the recipe a try – it is delicious, and most importantly, nutritious!
There are lots of other great breakfast options too, so subscribe below for our next food and nutrition updates.
Granola – Breakfast Cereal Recipe