Is there a safe cereal for my husband to eat? He has never been a breakfast person, but thinks eating in the morning could help him with managing his blood sugar and energy levels during the day. He suggested raisin bran, but Google says no.
Thank you again everyone! I'm so thankful I found this forum!!
I can’t do cereal, oatmeal, bagels… breakfast is tough
Greek Yogurt and Fiber One cereal works well for me.
Same here! Fiber One heavy on the Greek yogurt.
Yes this is it for cereals I think. Fibre One is the only cereal I eat now and this is coming from a cerealholic before my diagnosis a month ago.
This is what was recommended years ago and it still seems to work.
i find quite the opposite that skipping breakfast help me manage my blood sugar throughout the day very well
This right here. All the cereals mess me up, oatmeal which I love is on my no fly list as well. I do better with a sausage/bacon/tenderloin egg and cheese biscuit. Works out to about 20 carbs I don't even bolus my pump fixes it.
What kind of biscuit?
Standard country biscuit.
I do bulletproof coffee and I often don't have to eat anything until 1pm
I do the same with sourdough English muffins, it ends up being about 26-28ish carbs.
Same here. It’s been tough weaning myself off breakfast but I have dawn syndrome so been working at it. I have lost 10# though in the last 60 days so that’s a win. But it does keep my level well within range.
See what tickles the meter.
I used to eat cheerios. Then when I was diagnosed I switched to rolled oats, then steel cut oats.
Now I'm on two eggs and a slice of toast. If it's been running high I skip the toast, but most of the time I can have it.
Also in the ‘two eggs and a slice of (wholemeal) toast’ club.
Same here. 2 eggs, a slice of whole wheat toast with a tbsp of peanut butter and a lower carb fruit like an apple or cantaloupe.
same here, I too take eggs in my breakfast, but 2 full boiled eggs, and 5 egg whites. For little carb I add a slice of bread with little peanut butter for taste, with a glass of low fat milk.
Apple spike my sugar as they are direct sugar, so I avoid eating fruits like apple, banana, pineapple, etc. Sometimes if guava is available I take that as a whole fruit.
FYI: I'm not on meds, controlling my T2D with proper diet, exercise (run+Gym) !!!
bread is full of sugar and carbs. I Mean MAYBE you could get away with Ezekial bread or something. But bread.. is carbs and thus sugar.
Right, but after I come from those long 10-21k runs, if I don’t take that little amount of carb my head starts spinning. On Sundays I with my running group go for even more long runs, like 30-40k ish… Thus I need some carb, which don’t spike my sugar much. Plus I do strength training that helps me maintain my levels down.
Magic Spoon, you can get it at target now. It’s still processed so I wouldn’t say it’s peak healthy- but it won’t raise blood sugar levels as much as regular cereal because it’s protein based. I’d suggest starting his morning with a good dose of protein ( eggs ) and no naked carbs.
This is literally the only legit cereal option. Eggs, dinner leftovers, nuts and cheese are better breakfast options.
catalina crunch
I mean the logic is sound but your go-to solution of cereal is misguided. Why not make an actually healthy breakfast instead of carb-based candy?
Overnight oats, eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, fruit, meat, cheese
THIS ^^^^^
oh, except the oatmeal.. maybe if it is steelcut! You might look around to see what the Glucose spikes are for other grains...
Almost all breakfast cereal (i'm assuming you're in the US) has tons of sugar, unless it's literally a cereal, like oats with no added sugar.
Sugar-free yogurt, eggs, meats and fruit are better options. OFC you should be getting SOME carbs but American breakfast cereal is generally sugar-coated sugar-bombs.
I thought I was doing good eating Raisins and it raised my A1C!! They have a lot of sugar. - rule of thumb for a good meal is “High protein, low carb and zero to low sugar”
adn don't forget the fats!!!.. you do need fat.. despite what the Heart ASsociation has lied about for decades!
Any dried fruit is going to be a bad idea.
There are about 20 grapes in one of those kids lunch type boxes of raisins.
Think about how many boxes could you eat as a snack, then think if you'd eat the same number of fresh grapes.
I'm a sucker for dried mango, I could easily eat 5 mangos worth in 10 minutes, but then I'd think someone was mad if they sat down and munched back five fresh mangos in the same time.
one thing I majorly miss about this is I LOVED dried fruites, prunes, apricots, cranberries etc.. Loved those..
Lots of sugar in fresh grapes. I was taught a protein and a carb together always. For 5 years I've stuck to that and thankfully it's working. The only carbs u eat are fruits with low GI. Not a fan of bread. I also eat no sugar other than the fruit. Almost everything has as sugar real or fake in it. I don't eat that ever. I'm allergic to artificial sweeteners of any kind. Usually if I eat out it's eggs. I found a restaurant that puts sugar in scrambled eggs so be careful.
My endo calls Grapes sugar bombs. And raisins are simply dehydrated sugar bombs. I had to lay those down too after diagnosis. However, craisins with 50% less sugar doesn't mess me up near as bad so I enjoy some of those on my salad or just a quick snack ex 1/2 a hand full with a chunk of cheese when I get the munchies.
Magic spoon cereal but more $. Oatmeal, eggs, scrambled or your style of liking. I like omelets with cheese and veggies, ham. Publix’s has an avocado seeded bread in their bakery that doesn’t raise my BS. Might want to try if in your area. Mary’s gone crackers are good also. I have them with cheese and ham or beef sticks, hummus .
Just got some Kind Keto Zero Sugar granola. Pretty solid
I find too that a good high protein breakfast of eggs & meat (usually sausages) help me not only control my sugar levels but more importantly fill me up and give me a good amount of energy. I love having my homemade “farmers wraps” in the morning, scrambled eggs, breakfast sausages and hash browns with shredded cheese in a protein wrap. Delicious, nutritious and energizing.
I have found that so long as it's a lower carb non sugar cereal with a lot of fiber I can eat cereal sometimes. I usually add berries and nuts to plain Cheerios because that's about the lowest carb cereal out there that's not made for keto diets.
Cereal plus 1/2 cup of milk can't be more than 25 carbs or I won't eat it. One thing, I only drink whole milk because the fat content helps with flattening the glucose curve. 1%, 2% or skim milk it doesn't work as well.
Obviously my portions are very controlled but that's the only way I can make cereal work. It's no different from having bread. The closer to a whole grain it is, the lower the carb count the better and you can't eat a ton of it but you can have a sandwich once in a while and it won't spike you if you're working at it.
Carbs plus fat equal a lower glucose curb, lower spikes. Fiber also lowers the glucose spikes. So you want a no sugar, lowest carb as possible cereal or bread and you want to eat it with stuff that doesn't spike you otherwise, preferably you want to eat it with some fat too because that will also help with spikes.
Berries are a lower carb fruit. Add some fat in the form of nuts, watch how much milk you use and make it full fat milk and you can have a bowl of cereal and not totally kill your blood sugar.
What you can't do is eat a huge bowl of Captain Crunch or something like that like you used to do when you were a kid.
The Glucose Goddess books by Jessie Inchauspé they are total game changers. Her hacks work and they have really helped me.
I still had to do once a day insulin in the end. My body just isn't making enough on its own anymore. I still take my Met ER but using her hacks I'm able to actually eat a lot more and not spike myself nearly as much.
My worst post meal spikes now they almost never go over 200. Usually it's way less and my blood sugar goes right back down the way it should. I still aim for a pretty low carb count most days but I can have pasta, rice or potatoes now a couple of times a week and not end up spiking 300-400.
My fasting blood sugar is usually between 95 and 120 and that is just phenomenal progress for me. My doctor is just thrilled.
Thank you for the info about the Glucose Goddess books - 4 weeks into this with my hubby & your comments look to align with the path we are on for him. His A1C at diagnosis on 4/18 was 11.9 & he’s doing awesome getting morning glucose #’s 130-140 so far
No, I don't think any cereal is diabetic-friendly - it will likely raise his blood sugar even more.
Think more in the line of cheese, eggs without any bread (unless low carb).
So no steel cut oatmeal either?
You will have to test and see. That's the one thing that a lot of folks new to having diabetes don't immediately grasp. Every person reacts differently to different foods. So you read an article that you can't eat this or that, but your particular body might react completely different and be fine with it.
Complex carbs are better for diabetics than simple carbs. They take longer to break down which means they take long to absorb as well so you don't necessarily get the sudden spikes like you might if you just ate a spoonful of sugar.
When i started, I got a new journal and my trusty glucometer and I started testing foods. Typically from a fast, I would take a measurement, eat 1 serving of 1 food, wait 30 minutes and then test again. Then again at 1 hour. It was a pain, but it helped me get an idea of which foods were better for me personally and which weren't
It's still more nuanced than that, however it's still a great start. If I had to start over today, I'd get a CGM and do the same test, but monitor the CGM readings for an hour or so after each test.
I have found that while rice will spike me sky high, potatoes don't. Yet someone might go through the roof with a potato. You just have to learn to do you and over time you'll figure it out. I love steel cut oats and it's the only kind I'll eat. Never had a spike with them.
Very insightful. Makes me hope by tracking I can learn how my body responds. Thanks!
I still eat thick cut oatmeal occasionally, but I add chia seeds, flax seeds walnuts and fruit. Oa itself is essentially all carbs those add ins help. Not much nutrition in oats either. Quick or instant oats much worse. The finer any cereal Is ground/cut the quicker your body is going to turn it into sugar. Apparently has to do with surface area for your digestive system to work on. If your going to eat oatmeal go with old fashioned slow cooking types. Thick cut apparently is absorbed slower than thin thinner cut or steel cut ( usually little pieces). I buy Silver Palate or Red Barn thick cut. I prefer Silver Palate
There's a new cereal brand that's low in carbs and high in fiber and protein based on their ads but I've never seen it in the stores. Mothers Best unsweetened Shredded Wheat has fairly low carbs and decent fiber
In general I try to stay away from cereal to may carbs and a lot of it has been ground into powder and formed into shaps which means from absorption standpoint its about like a candy bar. Then dump in a ton of added sugar into a lot of it even into a lot of their "healthy cereal. Granolaetc just as bad..
I would stay away from process anything. Pure steel cut oats . Ilove those but haven't eaten them much since I was diagnosed.
I prefer the texture of rolled oats to the finer steel cut oats like McCanns.
Thanks. More info the better. Flax and chia seeds sound easy enough. Didn’t even know there was a thick cut. I’ll check out silver palate and red barn to. Typical fast breakfast has been handful of blueberries and handful of almonds.
Add a hard boiled egg. We often have a container in the refrigerator so it's grab and go.
Right!
Correction on name not Red Barn but Red Mill. Their products are all excellent
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if it's just oats, it's fine. Most boxed (or bagged?) breakfast cereals in the U,S, are packed with an astounding amount of empty calories.
depends on what kind of oats. Instant oatmeal? No.. Quick oats? no.. Steel cut.. maybe.. for some.
this is fair, added sugars sneak in everywhere.
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I don't know. Lol. I'm learning as we go. So far, this forum has been more helpful than anything!
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I would suggest magic spoon if anything. It’s pretty low carb (with none of them being sugar) and still tastes pretty good.
Magic Spoon and/or Catalina Crunch cereal - both are keto and higher protein than regular cereals, though they cost more per serving as a result. Instead of milk/milk alternatives, I mix it with high protein vanilla Greek yogurt - Chobani zero sugar, or Oikos Pro. The Oikos Pro has more sugar than the Chobani, but something like 3x the protein, so a cereal serving mixed with that actually keeps me pretty full for the morning while only counting for 20g of carbs.
If I really have no appetite in the morning (but I need to eat sometime so I can take Metformin) a low/no sugar protein shake works in a pinch.
Not really but some are better than others, Magic Spoon (low sugar and low carb cereal) didn’t mess me up as much as others and I ate it with soy milk which had less sugar and carbs, some diabetics use cream instead of milk as well bc it apparently has less sugar and carbs.
Here’s a chart comparing their sugar and carbs to other brands:
I eat Magic Spoon with a tbsp of heavy cream and water. Sounds weird but it hits the spot and less carbs than whole milk. I keep forgetting to buy soy or almond milk.
None.
Btw, skipping breakfast is the best thing that ever happened to my sugar.
I think as a diabetic t2 we need to change how we look at food. Not just what but how too and how much.
Most of the time I don’t eat bfast foods for bfast anymore. That is if I even do eat a breakfast. Today mostly it’s leftovers. Doing meal prep has really helped me cut out snacks when I’ll eat “anything” raging hunger.
My glucometer has told me no starches in the morning including grains. No sweet stuff including fruit. However I can eat apple with pb. Or 1 slice toast w pb n pomegranate seeds once in a while to break the monotony. But then my bread goes stale even in the freezer. Not worth it.
Sadly Raisin Bran was my fav cereal too. However the raisins do pack a punch. I do have it once in a rare while - 2 tablespoons after lunch or dinner. The rare while is so rare that my cereal goes stale. So it’s not worth it to buy it.
I miss BRAN Cereals.. which don't have to have raisens.. and I agree. Kellogs has a ban going on right now anyway becuase of the whole "let them eat cereal for dinner" comment.
Aah but for me it WAS the raisins. And I’m the only one in the house who likes raisins. So I never ran out of cereal because somebody else got to it! However I never found a bran cereal with NO sugar.
But I the whole picture I’d rather give up grains than fruit.
Never eat cereal 🥣 if a diabetic! Eggs and bacon or sausage are the best. Protein!
Keto granola seams to be good for me. Found it at Costco.
My late Dad did pretty good with shredded wheat. Raisin Bran would be fine but the raisins make you skyrocket. If he’s not a breakfast person, maybe just an apple or an apple and Greek yogurt?
They add a lot of sugar to Raisin Bran. Even plain bran flakes have added sugars, but Whole Foods brand is the lowest I've seen. "Shredded Wheat & Bran" (in the brown box) & Fiber One are the only cereals I've found with 0 added sugar. But still loads of carbs, so I agree that eggs/protein is the best breakfast. Spinach & mushroom omelettes are my favorite. :)
Muesli depending what you use
He could try oatmeal. It spikes the blood but it takes longer, it works well for some people
Non-instant rolled oats are a good pick and there’s a special k zero sugar added one that’s 9 total carbs in 1 and 1/4 cups and 4g fiber but to me it tastes horribly but maybe your husband would like it.
Is he facing specific problems by not having breakfast? Or is it just his thought?
I have always been a breakfast person, but since diagnosis, have kind of stopped breakfast altogether to do IF. and it actually helps me regulate blood sugar. From personal experience, I'd even go as far as 'breakfast is overrated'
He's been experiencing low energy levels since diagnosis. He left work early yesterday, but after he ate he felt better
Is he possibly overcompensating after the diagnosis? If earlier he was on a high sugar diet, and suddenly cut all sugar, the body will take time to adjust. I'd suggest talking about this with your doctor for a safer transition to low carb diet and possibly refer to a nutritionist if required.
Everyone responds differently to the lifestyle changes required to manage diabetes and your doctor is the best person to help you through it.
Edit: put the reply in the correct place. Also, do take all advice from this group with a pinch of salt. Consulting your doctor is always your best bet.
The only cereal I eat on occasion is oatmeal with Waldens pancake syrup mixed in.
Magic Spoon BUT ONLY THE PEANUT BUTTER ONE lol because the others all taste like trash 😂
They have strawberry milkshake and lemon cake on their website but you had to buy it in a set of 4. Pretty good though
Ah yea, I did buy the sets just to try them all. Didn’t like any of them which makes me so sad!
Bran flakes and original Cheerios are some of the best I have found for me.
This is my go to. I have type 2 Diabetes. Grape nuts mixed in with raisins and Almond Milk. If ya got a need for a chocolate fix, mini shredded wheats with Chocolate almond milk.
Huh? I eat cereal all the time as a snack, I just take the correct dose of insulin and have no issues 🤷♂️
seee.. this is the issue. So are you type 1 or type 2?
If you are type 2 and choosing to be on insulin.. that is your choice. However, many who are type two are realizing that they want to manage thier diabetes with DIET .. no insulin...and if they are good about it.. they can reverse their type 2 diabetes..
I wish it was required that each poster had to have a tag so folks would not incorrectly believe that it is ok for diabetics to eat cereal. Sure, if you are taking insulin.. but a lot of people are wanting to make proper lifestyle changes...
Absolutely my fault, I didn’t see the flair and as degenerate self obsessed person I incorrectly assumed they were type 1 like myself 😅
Hard boiled egga
I'd recommend eating eggs in the morning. Very healthy and won't spike his blood sugar. I get these very low carb muffins here in Australia that are pretty good. Not sure if you can get something like that where you are. But a little bit of Rye or wholemeal toast shouldn't spike him too much and will keep him full for longer.
The only time I ever go near cereal is when I have a stubborn hypo that won't come up so I'll have a bowl full. That should probably tell you all you need to know about how it affects blood sugars.
Mixing some bran flakes with some yogurt might be a good shout, the protein component of the yogurt will slow down the release of carbs and hopefully prevent any real spike, but I would suggest going for a short walk after eating though!
I like the Ezekiel cereal. It's a little on the pricey side but it's all great ingredients. It has 1g sugar per 56g and 27g net carbs. I usually have a half a cup (one serving), a splash of milk in the cereal, and a protein shake for breakfast if I'm in a hurry.
27 net carbs? That is high!!
I sometimes do fiber one with low sugar vanilla yogurt.
Most of the time I do a smoothie. Low sugar nutritional shake + leafy green + frozen avocado chunks + almond milk
It depends on where you live, what his meter says and what he likes. I do OK with a protein-based cereal like Truely or Farm Girl (Truely has more protein) but I eat it dry by choice. I do 5k each morning and find the cereal is a good pre-exercise snack/meal. Those 2 brands of cereal don't raise my levels too much (not wearing a CGM and I exercise but my 2h post-prandial numbers are like 5.7ish). I think they might only be in Canada, though, and they are pretty expensive.
Shredded wheat has no sugar but still has carbs so monitor his response! I paired with cinnamon and almond milk because cows milk spikes me
I like this berry nut "cereal": https://the-lowcarb-diet.com/berry-nut-low-carb-cereal/
He was drinking A LOT of Pepsi everyday prior to diagnosis. We talked to his doctor (FINALLY got in to endocrinology through connections) and he suggested he may be adjusting to the new normal. Nutrition is booked out until October.
Hang in there, it's a transition and you'll get through, many have suggested great options here for breakfast. Just stay away from cereal.
Cereal is the devil incarcenate. I usually have greek joghurt with fruit or overnight oats/porridge
TL:DR: NO CEREAL is diabetes friendly!
A carbohydrate is 2 sugar molecules stuck together. Sugar is poison to diabetics.
That’s why low carbohydrate meals are recommended for diabetics, to limit the damage done to your body, because it can no longer handle carbs safely.
Sweeteners are added to many processed foods because it’s a cheap way to improve flavor, which adds to the problem, you have to read the labels of everything you buy for hidden carbs.
It is frustrating how many just believe that "well I will just adjust with my insulin" .. Type 2 diabetes CAN BE REVERSED and you can get off insulin. ... The Diabetes industry has really given bad information that keeps Type 2's on drugs and Insulin... great for big pharma .. not so great for us.
Cereal is all carbs and not worth the blood sugar trouble for me.
If I want a cold breakfast I'll have a Two Good yogurt or a half cup cottage cheese with a half cup of strawberries and a quarter cup of Ratio granola for crunch.
Hot breakfast is a half cup cooked spinach with two scrambled eggs and a Mission carb balance wrap. You can add cheese if you want, but I usually only use Everything Bagel seasoning.
Try to make protien the star of the show and limit carby food to bit players. Also, don't forget breakfast doesn't have to be traditional breakfast food, especially since most of those traditional foods are high in sugar.
I grew up eating cereal or oatmeal every day and it was hard to think of breakfast as anything else at first but now I have zero desire to eat like that now.
cereal is a big no, it’s pure sugar. better for him to eat an omelette with some kind of protein in it. skip the toast to.
Cereal is not ideal, but once in awhile, when in a pinch.
I've been told it's better to eat something bad than go hungry (and possibly go high for awhile)
Try to stick to lower carb cereals, (Plain wheat/bran) and try not to have a large portion of it.
I would honestly strive to ditch cereal alltogether.. the "Low carb" moniker I think is just a selling gimmick. Also "sugar free" etc.. often has sweeteners that spike glucose levels or are just not healthy. It is an experiement to see which or won't affect you. They are pricy too! I only use swerve or some others IF I am making myself a treat like bday cake etc.
I got this muesli at Lidl and it works well for me:
https://www.lidl.com/products/0220564
Be careful though, different flavors of that same brand had wildly different nutrition. The goji berry/pomegranate one I linked though is great.
do you take insulin or metformin?
I have a tiny bit of Multigrain Cheerios for breakfast every morning (15g), but it’s the last part of the meal after eating a spinach omelette, cheese, Greek yogurt with walnuts, coffee with cream, and a diabetic-friendly meal replacement shake. I used to eat All-Bran multigrain crunch instead but they seem to have discontinued it a few years back.
All the fat and protein (89g and 46g respectively) keeps me from getting a massive spike and sets my baseline for the day. Lunch and dinner have a handful of carbs each, usually under 5g net. A1c is 6.8, not on any insulin / meds.
My BG skyrockets eating cereal and is b**ch to bring it back down.
oatmeal with flax seed, walnuts, cinnamon and blueberries.
I eat ghost protein cereal with almond milk
Ratio keto cereal is pretty good.
Ratio cereal with some added mixed nuts, s splash of sugar free maple syrup, and zero sugar whipped cream on top is a go to dessert for me.
Even wholefoods has bulk keto granola now. So the options are improving.
I try to make my own cereal. I really like Coco pops ( I'm European, so I don't know if you have these in the US, but it's basically puffed rice covert in cocoa.) so I do these twice a month and keep them in a sealed box. You just have to choose a low sugar cocoa powder for the coating, and mix it with sugar alternatives like Stevia. It works well for me so maybe you can try these out?
The only time I have cereal is if I get a lower carb cereal and I only use it for crunchies on top of plain Greek yogurt and blueberries. (If you use frozen blueberries, the yogurt texture feels more like a treat)
Something with fat is the best. It will keep you sated a longer time. I actually do a BULLETPROOF coffee. It is coffee with coconut oil (Or MCT oil) Grassfed butter and maybe Collagen powder. (Optional) but the fat/oils keep you satieated for much longer than fake sweetners or anything cereal/oatmeal.
IF you insist on oatmeal, do NOT do instant oats. Do steel cut oats and leave out the sweetners but put in butter or a savory.
Eggs and meat
As other people mentioned I eat FiberOne cereal with fresh fruit. I also like to use Fairlife Milk because it has less sugar. You can also do no sugar oatmeal with fresh fruit.
Also to add to the discussion, even low to no sugar can be an issue because it's broken down so fast and processed. That's why old fashioned oatmeal works well. It takes a while to break it down. Cereal basically equals suagar to my body.
The thing with cereals, all of them, is that they aren’t going to stay in your system as long as eating protein and fats for breakfast is. All carbs will spike your and then send your blood sugars plummeting, leaving you hungry again in a short amount of time
A bagel small with avocado on it
Weirdly I can't do any cold crunchy breakfast cereal, but I can do a packet of plain Oatmeal with a side of yogurt just fine.
I buy Catalina crunch. It’s yummy and doesn’t spike me. I buy a huge bag at Costco for a reasonable price.
I only eat protein and vegetables for breakfast.
Magic Spoon doesn't fuck up my blood sugar and it's pretty good. It's also 10 damn dollars a box.
I’m big into keto bread with eggs/avocado, or an egg, cheese, and bacon wrap on a low-carb tortilla. That said, I may allow myself slightly more carbs (around 30-40g) at breakfast because I know I’ll have all day to work it off.
Cereal is ok for me, but I'd have a small amount with an egg or some string cheese. He might try that and see how his blood sugar is affected. If he doesn't already have a continuous glucose monitor I'd suggest that too. It's much easier to track the effect of foods that way.
I made my hubby egg salad & he puts it on a Joseph’s flax / oat etc wrap & is very happy with that.
We haven’t gotten cereal figured out yet (there’s some keto options) but then the carbs in the milk aren’t great - have yet to convert over to almond milk
I had hard boiled eggs - but that was time consuming to peel them. We are only 4 weeks into this
There’s a cereal called Three Wishes. It’s expensive. But, it’s gluten free, has like 7 ingredients, minimal sugar and a good amount of protein. I’ve done fine with it. My kids, husband, and I think it tastes really good as well.
I found a small bowl of bitesize shredded wheat sees me through till lunch.
Magic spoon! It’s expensive but doesn’t make me spike at all.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKJLqWD/ she shows some different cereals and other food picks that you can look into
Protein in the morning helps me. Eggs, cottage cheese, and a fruit like berries. Veggies sometimes with also.
I have a bagelthin or English muffin w/ melted cheese and protein (pepperpni, turkey/chicken, fried egg etc) most mornings and that generally works. If you have a toaster oven, it's not much more work than cereal, really.
Oatmeal is a great way to go, and if he still has a sweet tooth, try putting a little agave in it, and some fresh fruit.
For cereals, regular Cheerios would be safe they have no sugar. Plain shredded wheat is also good. It also has no sugar, high fiber, and low fat.
Agave is not a good sweetner for diabetics. You need to check and experiment which spikes you though.
To build on your point, which I should have clarified, use very little agave.
From the University of Illinois, "Unfortunately, agave nectar has been promoted as being a healthier alternative to table sugar. That's because it has a low glycemic index (a measure of the effect that a food has on blood glucose levels). Agave nectar will not raise blood glucose levels as rapidly as table sugar, but even the American Diabetes Association says that agave is still sugar; it will still raise blood glucose levels and is far from a healthy choice. Whether sugar, agave, honey, maple syrup or others, simply use less!"
Cereal is the worst. At least that's what my gcm tells me. I'd stick with old fashioned oatmeal and maybe monkfruit to sweeten it up safely. Of course everyone reacts differently.