7 things I learned about breakfast after my husband's Type 2 diagnosis
He had quietly stopped eating it. It took me weeks to notice. This is what finally put it back on the table.
The nurse handed us a leaflet and a date for a review. Nobody mentioned that breakfast, of all the meals, was about to become the hardest one of the day.
For a few weeks he just said he wasn't hungry in the mornings, and I believed him. It took me embarrassingly long to work out that he hadn't gone off food. He had gone off the fight. Every option felt like a gamble, so he just stopped bothering.
Then I realised something that stopped me. So many people with Type 2 just skip breakfast altogether. All that time I had assumed it was just him. Just us.
What follows is everything I pieced together in the months after, roughly in the order I worked it out. If your kitchen mornings look anything like ours did, I hope it saves you a few of them.
1.Almost every "healthy" breakfast turned out to be a trap
Toast sent him straight up. Granola sounds healthy until you turn the box over. It is basically pudding. Protein shakes are not breakfast, and he was never going to drink one every morning for the rest of his life.
The boxes with the word "diabetic" on the front were the worst kind of let-down. Turn them over and they still carried 30 to 40g of carbs a bowl. Your blood sugar does not care what it says on the front.
That was the thing no one had told us.
The front of the box is written for you. The back is the only part his body actually reads.
2."Just have eggs" gets old faster than anyone warns you
So we did what everyone tells you to do. Eggs. Every single morning. Scrambled, poached, folded into an omelette, with spinach on the days I was feeling ambitious.
There are only so many ways to cook an egg before half seven starts to feel like a chore you both dread. And on the worst mornings he had nothing at all. A coffee and the door.
That was the part that frightened me. Not the cooking. The skipping.
3.I almost ignored the cereal a friend swore by
A friend whose dad is Type 2 told me about a cereal with no sugar in it. I will be honest, I half ignored her. We had been burned by "healthy" cereal before. Something promising 0g of sugar sounded like it would either taste of cardboard or hide the catch in the small print.
It was called Surreal. I left it a good fortnight before I caved and ordered a pack. I wish I had done it the day she told me.
4.For once, the back of the box was the good news
You will have gathered I read the back of every box before anything else now. You learn to.
The chocolate one read:
- 0g of sugar a serving
- 18g of protein, more than two eggs
- High in fibre
That protein figure was the one that got me. It meant he could stop cracking eggs every single morning and still leave the house with something proper in him. Nothing I had to take on trust. I read it twice, waiting for the catch. There wasn't one.
5.The taste was the part neither of us believed
Here is the bit I still can't quite explain. It tastes like the cereal he grew up on. Not some sad sugar-free version of it, the actual thing. It stays properly crunchy too, none of that going-soft-in-the-milk you brace yourself for. It feels naughty, and it isn't.
I looked them up afterwards, half waiting to find the catch. Instead I read that it had taken them two years and around fifty manufacturers to get a cereal with no sugar in it to taste like this. You do not land on that by accident.
I didn't quite believe my own taste buds, so I read what other people had said first. A few of them could have been written about us.
I was sceptical. Oh my, was I wrong. Embarrassingly wrong.
Minna M.I assumed it would taste less exotic than the floor of a parrot's cage. Well, it's blooming lovely stuff.
Robert M.What finally got me to stop analysing every spoonful was simple.
I don't know how they have done it. But they have.
If you would rather skip ahead and just try it, this is the pack we started with.
Try Surreal6.What actually changed for him
I want to be careful here, because everybody is different and I am not going to tell you what it will do for you or anyone else.
I can only tell you what I have watched at our own table. He is not skipping breakfast anymore. He has a bowl most mornings, the chocolate one usually, often before I have even made it downstairs. A proper bowl too, not the sad little handful he had got used to. A cereal he can finally have without it being coated in sugar like the rest of that aisle.
For the part I am not qualified to speak on, the readings, I will let a customer who actually tracks hers say it instead of me:
I like that my blood sugar doesn't spike as much as with ordinary cereals.
Ruth"I'm a huge fan of cereal, it's a comfort food. These are delicious and nutritious."Jessie
7.In the end it was never really about cereal
The morning he reordered a box himself, without me reminding him, is when it properly landed for me. He won't go near the shop-bought stuff now.
A diagnosis takes a lot of small, ordinary things away from you, and you barely notice them going. Getting one back, a bowl of cereal of all things, meant more than I can really explain. For once it was something we could both enjoy.
That is the whole reason I sat down to write this.
Surreal vs another morning of eggs
Surreal
Eggs, every morning
What real Surreal customers are saying
So far so good. Tasty, filling, and doesn't spike sugars.
As a diabetic, I like that I can have cereal without it being coated in sugar.
I'm diabetic and it's the best, crunchiest cereal ever. Just love it.
Great product, and it tastes amazing.
Common questions
Is this suitable if I'm managing Type 2?
It's a food, not a treatment, so it isn't a substitute for anything your doctor has told you. What we can tell you is what's in it: 0g of sugar and 18g of protein a serving. Plenty of people managing Type 2 have it as part of their morning. Your own readings and your healthcare team are always the final word.
Will it spike me?
Everybody's body is different, so we won't make a promise about yours, and nothing here is medical advice. What we can say is there's 0g of sugar in it. If you track your own levels, the best test is your own meter.
How does it have 0g of sugar?
It's sweetened with erythritol and steviol glycosides instead of sugar, and the crunch comes from soya and pea protein rather than refined grains.
Does it actually taste good, or is it "health food" good?
Fair question, and the honest answer is read the reviews above before you take our word for it. It comes in flavours like Cocoa, Cinnamon and Frosted.
Is it only for people with Type 2?
Not at all. It's a high-protein, low-sugar cereal that happens to suit a lot of people watching their sugar, including Type 2 and Type 1. It's also vegan and gluten free.
What if he doesn't like it?
Then you send it back. Every order is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you'd like to start where we did
They do a starter pack, so you are not committing to a cupboard full before you know he will actually eat it.
The 4-pack starter lets you pick your own flavours and works out around 84p a bowl, less than most cereals carrying a fraction of the protein. It comes with a free bowl and spoon, and every order is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. The founders, Kit and Jac, refund you themselves, and fewer than one in two hundred people ever ask. If it is not for you, you send it back and that is the end of it.
You pour it, you add milk, and that is it. For the first time in ages, breakfast is not something he has to brace for.
Put breakfast back on the table
18g protein. 0g sugar. Breakfast, back on the table.
Right now they are doing up to 53% off your first order plus a free bowl and spoon, and the whole thing is covered by a money-back guarantee. If it is not for you, you send it back.
For us, that guarantee is what made trying it a non-decision. There was nothing to lose but another tasteless morning.
Try Surreal →18g protein · 0g sugar · money-back guarantee