Exactly What A Stanford-Trained MD Eats In A Day For Blood Sugar Balance 

"With any meal, I'm thinking about what components I want to get into my body for optimal cellular health," says Stanford-trained physician and co-founder of Levels Casey Means, M.D., on the mindbodygreen podcast. For her, healthy fats, fiber, protein, and tons of micronutrients from colorful, nourishing plants make it into every recipe. "I think more in a modular sort of way when building a meal and less about the exact dish," she adds. 

In case you haven't heard, Means is a fan of savory breakfasts. In fact, she considers the switch from sweet to savory the best life hack for balancing blood sugar (especially if your sweet breakfasts typically include lots of refined carbs and sugar). 

"[I enjoy] things like a free-range egg scramble with avocado and some sautéed greens, maybe some smoked salmon with eggs and some greens," she says. "I love to do a tofu scramble with some nutritional yeast and a bunch of veggies, maybe even some beans. It's really about leaning into that savory, lower-carbohydrate, less sweet [dish]." 

"Identify the culprits in terms of glucose spikes, and then just either take them out or swap them—that's the framework I would approach lunch with," says Means. Let's take a typical lunch wrap or sandwich, for instance: "A sandwich might have vegetables, hummus, and a protein in there, but then the bread or the wrap essentially thrives the glucose spike," she explains.

Again, Means leans on swaps for her evening meals. "I've actually switched completely to cauliflower rice sushi, which I make at home," she shares. "It's so easy and super delicious." For her, the simple swap offers zero glucose spike, as opposed to the 80-point spike she typically sees with white rice sushi. You could also opt for quinoa sushi—registered dietitian Nour Zibdeh, M.S., RDN, calls quinoa one of the healthiest carbohydrates for blood sugar because of its high-protein and fiber content—or a veggie-packed poke bowl. 

For a rich, decadent dessert (with blood-sugar-balancing properties, too!), Means loves a chocolate chia pudding. "Chia is such an amazing superfood," she says. "It's got so much fiber and protein in just 2 tablespoons." You can customize your chia however you like (nut butter, berries, what have you), but Means is partial to this simple recipe: "I'll [add] some berries and coconut in a coconut-cocoa chia pudding. These are all things I know that are delicious but do not spike my blood sugar."