A doctor has shared how abandoning common breakfast foods such as toast and tea in favour of nuts, berries and full-fat yoghurt helped him on his way to a healthier life.
On the BBC podcast 'Just One Thing', doctor and epidemiologist Tim Spector revealed that the apparently healthy breakfast he ate for 10 years unknowingly set him up for failure in his efforts to lose weight.
The nutrition expert switched up his morning routine after noticing his blood sugar levels spike in the morning immediately after eating his usual toast and marmalade, the Daily Record reports.
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He said: "When I was a healthy doctor epidemiologist, it [breakfast] would be mostly a cup of tea with low fat milk in it. And a nice glass of orange juice, and toast and marmalade. It would be brown toast - I didn't know at that time that they're often dyed brown.
"I was eating towards what I was told at the time as a doctor was a healthy diet. And it turns out that that diet had led to me gaining about a kilo in weight over the previous 10 years, so that I'd gained about 10 kilos over that time. And it was only when I stuck a glucose monitor on me as I was eating my breakfast that it shot up into the normal diabetic range.
"There was a worrying sign that really these carbs and sugars weren't right for me."
Professor Spector went on the explain that his wife's blood sugar levels reacted differently to the same breakfast as he urged people to try different foods.
He said he now eats full fat yogurt with nuts, seeds and berries and switched tea to coffee which helps him stay full until lunch.
He added: "This is why I say experiment your breakfast because for me, it was good to change to a high fat breakfast. So, I have full fat yoghurt with some nuts and seeds sprinkled on there and whichever berries I happen to have - either frozen or fresh depending on the season. I switched my tea to coffee, because we now know coffee is really good for your gut microbes."
"It was a radical difference. And I instantly saw that changing brought down my sugars. I wasn't getting sugar spikes. I also didn't feel nearly as hungry at 11am at work. I didn't feel I needed a mid morning biccy as I used to and I was just feeling generally better."
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