What should I eat if I have prediabetes?

Prediabetes is a metabolic condition marked by elevated glucose levels that's linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.¹ It’s an early warning sign, and by taking action, it’s possible to get blood sugar levels back down into a healthy range.

The foods that you eat and your overall dietary pattern can play a huge role in helping prevent prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes and can even help return blood sugars back to a normal range.

In this article, we’ll explore how making changes to what you eat can have an impact on prediabetes. We’ll also recommend foods to focus on for supporting prediabetes—as well as what to cut back on—and share some glucose-friendly recipes to try out.

How can your diet help with prediabetes?

Our food choices can help prediabetes by supporting steadier glucose levels within the healthy range.

Research suggests that the type and amount of carbohydrates we eat can strongly influence how our bodies respond to insulin.^3,4 Over time, diets high in refined carbs are associated with a greater risk of developing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.⁵

What is insulin resistance?

Insulin resistance occurs when your body doesn’t respond to insulin in the way it usually would. This means your pancreas needs to produce more insulin to keep your glucose levels within a healthy range.

Over time, if your pancreas continues overproducing insulin, the cells that produce insulin can gradually lose their ability to work properly, which can lead to higher glucose levels both before and after eating.⁶

The importance of glucose

Dietary patterns that are high in simple or refined carbohydrates can spike glucose quickly, placing a greater demand on the pancreas to produce enough insulin to manage the resulting increase. In some cases, over time, this increased demand to keep glucose in check can lead to insulin resistance and eventually prediabetes.

The less time your glucose spends above the healthy range, the lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.⁷

And dietary changes are one of the key strategies to help keep your glucose within a healthy range.

While there is no single “best dietary pattern” for prediabetes, many different approaches can work, so long as they do the following:^3,8

• Promote healthier food choices: Focus on nutrient-dense foods while limiting added sugars and refined carbs.

• Aid sustainable weight loss: Even modest weight loss (5-7% of body weight) can improve insulin sensitivity and lower glucose.

• Are individually tailored: Diets should fit personal preferences, cultural traditions, and health needs.

• Are realistic to keep up: People are more likely to maintain dietary patterns that are practical and enjoyable.

Now let’s look at some specific strategies that can help.

Focusing your meals on protein, fibre, and healthy fat

These three macronutrients can each help support steady glucose levels in different ways:

• Protein: eating enough protein not only reduces glucose spikes,⁹ but also helps you feel full and supports muscle mass,^10,11 which is important for insulin sensitivity and your body’s ability to utilise glucose.¹²

• Fibre can make a meal more filling and help stabilise your glucose after eating.^13,14

• Fat: when a diet is lower in carbohydrates, fat can be a great energy source, doesn’t spike glucose, and helps keep us full.

Focus your meals on protein, non-starchy vegetables (fibre), and healthy fat. Some good examples to incorporate for a glucose-stabilising meal include:

• Protein: steak, chicken, eggs, or tofu

• Non-starchy vegetables: leafy greens, cauliflower, or broccoli

• Fats: olive oil or avocado

Reducing the carbohydrates in your diet

Because carbohydrates cause glucose to rise, they are often the main focus of strategies to reverse prediabetes and bring glucose levels back into the normal range.

That said, how each person metabolises carbohydrates can vary, influenced by factors such as genetics, the microbes in your gut, and the overall makeup of a meal.¹⁵

If you have signs of insulin resistance, or a prediabetes diagnosis, cutting out simple carbs is a great first step. Think: biscuits, crisps, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages like fizzy drinks, which can all spike your glucose (and insulin) quickly.

Keep in mind, other carbohydrates like bread, pasta, and rice can also spike your glucose, especially if they’re refined (e.g. enriched flours and white rice) or eaten on their own.

Experimenting with how carbs impact your glucose

Since everyone processes carbs differently, it’s a good idea to experiment with different types of carbs and the amounts that work best for you. While some people do well including moderate portions of high-quality, higher-carb sources like starchy vegetables or whole grains, others may notice they do better when sticking to lower-carb options like non-starchy vegetables and berry fruits, focusing more on protein and healthy fats in meals.

If you choose to eat carbs, we recommend playing around with the serving sizes and sources to find the options that won't lead to large glucose spikes (aiming to avoid going over 7.8 mmol/L) most of the time. We also suggest eating carbs after the protein and fibre on your plate (more on this later).

How to better understand the impact of carbs

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are one tool that can help you learn how different types and amounts of carbs impact your glucose as well as identify the foods that are most likely to send your glucose out of the healthy range. CGMs can also help you adopt habits to help minimise these spikes.¹⁶

Lingo is a CGM designed to help you learn your unique glucose patterns and the foods that work best for your individual needs, thereby supporting you with your nutrition and health goals.

Foods to limit with prediabetes

The following refined and processed carbs—including foods high in added sugars—are examples that can easily spike your glucose if eaten on their own or in large amounts. They contain simple carbs and tend to be overeaten, making it more difficult to maintain stable glucose:

• Biscuits

• Crisps

• Pastries

• Sugar-sweetened beverages (such as fizzy drinks)

• Fruit juice

• White bread

• White rice

• White pasta

• Sugary breakfast cereals

• Sweets

• Ice cream

• Pre-packaged desserts

• Condiments that contain sugar

It’s worth noting that there’s room for all foods within a healthy diet, even if you have prediabetes. The important thing is moderating the amount of high-glycaemic foods like the above that can have a big impact on your glucose levels.

Unprocessed, complex carbohydrates that might be better options:

• Non-starchy vegetables

• Beans, lentils, chickpeas

• Whole grains (intact or minimally processed)

• Whole fruit (not dried fruit or fruit juice)

• Nuts and seeds

These sources of carbs may not lead to as large of a glucose spike as those that tend to occur after eating refined, processed carbs. It's worth testing to see how these unprocessed carbs affect your glucose and whether the amount, timing, or food combinations make a difference.

How food combining impacts glucose

If you’re going to eat something that could spike your glucose, simple changes to how your meals are composed and eaten can make a noticeable difference. Eating carbohydrates alongside a source of protein, fibre, and/or healthy fat—or consuming these foods first—can help blunt post-meal glucose spikes.

Research shows that eating protein and vegetables before carbohydrates can significantly reduce post-meal glucose and insulin responses,^17,18 and that pairing carbohydrates with protein or fat (consuming them together) may have similar benefits.¹⁹

Use physical activity to help regulate glucose

Physical activity can also help mitigate the effects of higher carb meals. For example, a short walk after eating can soften a post-meal spike because when your muscles are moving, they start using some of the glucose from your meal for energy without the need for insulin. Studies show that moving soon after eating works better than waiting— even 10-20 minutes can make a difference.^20,21

Plus, regular exercise builds up your muscles’ ability to use glucose more efficiently over time. Studies in people with prediabetes show that both aerobic activity (like walking or cycling) and resistance training (bodyweight or weightlifting) help improve insulin sensitivity and glucose control.^22,8

Additionally, aiming for at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity (like brisk walking) is important.⁸

Make simple swaps

You don’t need to forgo your favourite high-carb meals. There are often ways to adapt recipes or swap ingredients to make them more glucose-friendly, such as lettuce wraps instead of tortillas or cauliflower rice mixed with white or brown rice. With a little research and creativity, the options are endless!

Learn more about so-called "healthy" foods that can cause a spike, plus glucose-friendly swaps.  

Glucose-friendly recipes

Here are some recipe ideas for different meals that could support steady glucose levels:

Breakfast

• Bacon and egg breakfast wrap

• High-protein overnight oats

Lunch

• Smoked salmon and egg salad (salade niçoise)

• Buffalo chicken salad sandwich

Dinner

• Cheesy prawn spaghetti squash

• Turkey meatballs with orzo and Greek salad

Note: Each of these meals includes sources of protein, fibre, and/or healthy fats. They could be a good starting point to plan your meals and help you figure out the types and number of carbs that work best for your body.

A final note from Lingo

Following a diet that prioritises protein, fibre, and healthy fats while limiting simple carbs is an important lifestyle change for reducing the risk of prediabetes progressing.

Lingo is a CGM that’s designed to show you the impact of what you eat, providing you with glucose data you can use to find foods that work for you.

As well as thinking about what you eat, it’s also important to consider what you can do to manage your weight. Getting plenty of physical exercise is a key piece of the puzzle, too.⁸

Combining modest weight loss, physical activity, and a glucose-friendly diet can help reverse glucose levels back to the normal range.⁸ Adopting better habits today can lead to healthier outcomes down the road.

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