Dr. Mark Hyman warns that seemingly healthy breakfast options may contain hidden sugars, contributing to a surge in diabetes among Americans.
Many Americans unknowingly consume breakfast foods marketed as “healthy,” which may be detrimental to their health, according to Dr. Mark Hyman, a physician and co-founder of Function Health in California. He emphasizes that a significant portion of the American diet is laden with unhealthy ingredients.
“The amount of refined starches and sugars that are everywhere is just staggering to me, given what we know about how harmful they are,” Hyman stated in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I don’t think people really understand.”
Hyman, who is also the author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored,” expressed his astonishment at the breakfast choices many people make. “People just eat sugar for breakfast,” he noted, listing common offenders such as muffins, bagels, croissants, and sugar-sweetened coffees and teas.
In addition to traditional sweet breakfast items, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have introduced “protein-packed” products in response to health trends promoting higher protein consumption. However, Hyman cautioned that many of these protein smoothies are often loaded with sugar.
<p”Now, we’re seeing this halo of protein in certain things,” he remarked. “My joke is, if it has a health claim on the label, it’s definitely bad for you.”
To combat these unhealthy breakfast habits, Hyman recommends opting for whole sources of protein and fat. He believes that a small amount of carbohydrates is acceptable as part of a balanced breakfast. For his own morning meal, Hyman prefers a protein shake made with whey protein, avocado, and frozen berries. He also advocates for eggs and avocados as a nutritious protein-and-fat combination.
“It’s not that complicated — people need to just think about their breakfast not being dessert,” he asserted. “No wonder we’re in this cycle of obesity and diabetes. One in three teenage kids now has type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. That’s just criminal.”
Rather than focusing on calorie counting and maintaining a caloric deficit for weight loss and health, Hyman encourages individuals to consider how different foods affect their well-being. “When you look at the way in which different types of calories affect your biology, you can just choose what you’re eating, and then you don’t have to worry about how much,” he explained.
Hyman elaborated that consuming a diet low in starch and sugar, while higher in protein and fat, can prevent insulin spikes and blood sugar fluctuations. “You won’t develop those swings in blood sugar, you won’t develop the spikes in insulin, you won’t deposit hungry fat … You will break that cycle,” he said.
He also pointed out that people tend to “self-regulate when they eat real food” as opposed to processed options, which often disrupt normal mechanisms of satiety and fullness. “Ultraprocessed food and junk food or highly processed food is not food,” he stated. “It doesn’t support the health and well-being of an organism. It doesn’t do that. It does the opposite.”
As the conversation around health and nutrition continues to evolve, Hyman’s insights serve as a reminder to scrutinize the foods we consume, particularly those that are marketed as healthy. The hidden sugars in many breakfast items could be contributing to a growing public health crisis, and making informed choices may be key to reversing the trend.
For more information on this topic, refer to the insights shared by Dr. Mark Hyman in his interview with Fox News Digital.