How to Know if Your Blood Sugar is Out of Whack and What to do about it
Estimated Reading Time: 9 Minutes
You’ve probably heard every health and wellness expert talk about blood sugar at some point, right?
Well, this means it’s probably essential for your overall health. But is it something you need to pay attention to?
Let’s start with a quick checklist. How many of these apply to you?
You have intense cravings for certain foods (sweets, starches, coffee, or alcohol)
You have a hard time sleeping through the night
You are moody or lose your temper easily
You have difficulty staying focused
You experience poor concentration
You get irritable, especially if you miss a meal
You feel better or less anxious after eating
You get hungry within 3 hours after eating
You cannot lose weight, no matter how hard you try
You get tired easily
You often feel sluggish
You get anxious throughout the day
You experience fainting spells
You get frequent headaches
You have an insatiable thirst
If even a few of these sound like you, I hate to break it to you, but your blood sugar could be out of whack.
While your body has mechanisms in place to maintain stable blood sugar, the good news is that there are many nutritional and lifestyle strategies that you can implement to help it out.
“Maintaining stable blood sugar levels is vital for your overall physical and mental health.”
So keep reading to discover some simple tips and tricks to help you better balance your blood sugar.
But wait - there’s even more good news! By following the tips recommended in this post, you’ll experience other positive side effects like improved mood, more energy, increased productivity, better sleep, and enhanced weight control.
But before we divulge these strategies, let’s take a step back and review the basics.
Blood Sugar 101
Do the words "blood sugar” conjure up visions of restrictive eating, diabetes medications, or insulin injections?
For many people, these words do. You may have a relative who has diabetes, and you know his or her daily struggles with injections and having to buy “special” food. But blood sugar is much more than this. It goes beyond diabetes and is something everyone should be concerned about.
Blood sugar (or blood glucose) is the measure of the amount of sugar in your blood. It comes from the food you eat and is carried by your bloodstream to all cells, supplying both you and your brain with energy. You need the right balance of sugar in your blood to fuel your brain and muscles.
The thing is, it can fluctuate - a lot.
This fluctuation is the natural balance between things that increase it and things that decrease it. When you eat food with sugars or starches ("carbs"), your digestive system absorbs the sugars into your blood. When carbs are ingested and broken down into simple sugars, your body brings blood sugar levels down by secreting insulin. Insulin allows excess sugar to get out of your bloodstream and into your muscle cells and other tissues where the sugars can be used for energy.
Certain foods, like simple sugars and white flour products (donut or muffin, anyone?), will be absorbed by your body quickly. Blood sugar levels will spike and cause insulin levels to rise. When insulin transports these sugars to places where they can be used (or stores them in fat cells for later - where, unfortunately, they seem to keep piling up), then levels of sugar in the blood drop just as quickly as they rose. This sudden drop (called hypoglycemia) is what creates fatigue, irritability, weakness, and cravings.
We’ll get to it soon, but fortunately, there are many healthier options out there that are more slowly absorbed into your bloodstream to help reduce the blood sugar highs and lows.
Why keep my blood sugar stable?
Your body is continuously working behind the scenes to obtain a state of homeostasis or balance in every aspect of your health - blood sugar stability is no exception.
Your body wants your blood sugar to be at an optimal level all the time. It should be high enough, so you’re not light-headed, fatigued, and irritable. It should be low enough that your body isn’t scrambling to remove excess from the blood.
When your blood sugar is balanced or at an optimal level, you’ll likely feel more energetic, happier, more productive, and may even sleep better.
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But when your blood sugar is imbalanced, you can experience any number of problems depending on whether you are on a sugar high or low. Remember that checklist at the beginning of this post?
When blood sugar is too low, it creates a condition called “hypoglycemia." We may get tired, feel weak and dizzy, or may even pass out. We can also have a hard time staying focused or maintaining attention. Have you ever found it hard to work or concentrate on something with an empty stomach? Low blood sugar is likely the reason why.
When blood sugar is too high, we can experience “hyperglycemia.” Prolonged periods of elevated blood sugar levels (chronic hyperglycemia) can lead to "insulin resistance." [1]
Insulin resistance is when your cells are just so bored with the excess insulin that they start ignoring (resisting) it, and that keeps your blood sugar levels too high. Insulin resistance and chronic hyperglycemia can eventually lead to pre-diabetes and diabetes.
Many of you may be thinking diabetes? I’m not concerned about that yet - how harmful can high blood sugar levels be? Well, as a neuronutritionist, let me let you in on a little secret.
Excess sugar is harmful to your entire body. But the organ that seems to suffer the most is your brain. Yes, even the occasional occurrence of elevated blood sugar is harmful to your brain. It can cause cerebral inflammation and result in slowed cognitive function, poor attention, and memory deficits.
Bottom line: sugar plays a prominent role in brain health and neurodegenerative disease. [2]
So if you’d like a happy, healthy brain and a happy, healthy body - start paying attention to your blood glucose levels. Having stable blood sugar levels is key. And by achieving this, you will have more energy, reduced cravings, improved sleep, and so much more!
Now, let’s dive into the ‘how’ by taking a look at the next steps. The following are some simple steps you can take to keep your blood sugar levels stable.
Food tips to stable blood sugar
1. Focus on protein
Protein. Protein. Protein. Including a healthy source of protein with each meal and snack is the #1 rule to follow when it comes to blood sugar levels that are out of whack. Protein helps slow the release of sugars into the blood, curbs cravings, and keeps you feeling full. Protein is also needed for the growth and repair of body tissue. The healthiest proteins come from natural plants, grass-fed animals, wild fish, and pasture-raised poultry.
2. Eat more fibre
Eating more fibre is helpful too. Fibre helps slow down the amount of sugar absorbed from your meal; it reduces the "spike" in your blood sugar level. Fibre can be found in plant-based foods (as long as they are eaten in their natural state - processing foods removes the fibre they contain). Eating nuts, seeds, whole fruits, and a variety of veggies (not juiced) is a great (and delicious) way to increase your fibre intake.
3. Go where the nutrients are
Focusing on nutrient-dense whole foods is always a good choice! But when you fill your plate with fresh, colourful, and minimally processed foods, they work to stabilize blood sugar levels and avoid spikes. In general, these are the foods that grow under or on the ground or are animals that naturally eat them. Processed foods, on the other hand, have added sugars and preservatives that raise glucose levels.
“TIP: Did you know that whole foods can be considered those found in their natural state that does not require a nutritional label?”
4. Use the right fats
Don’t be afraid of fat - well, the right kinds of fat! Healthy fats like avocados, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, grass-fed butter, nuts, and seeds all work to slow the release of sugars into the bloodstream. This prevents glucose levels from spiking in the first place. These kinds of healthy fats also provide more satiety for for prolonged periods - keeping you feeling fuller for longer to keep cravings at bay.
5. Spice it up
Certain spices can also work to help balance blood sugar levels. One of the easiest to use is cinnamon. FUN FACT: Cinnamon has been shown to help cells increase insulin sensitivity. Not to mention, it’s a delicious spice that can be used in place of sugar. Other spices that can help stabilize blood sugar include turmeric, garlic, sage, and rosemary.
6. Limit sugar intake
One of the simplest things to do to maintain stable blood sugar levels is reduce the number of refined sugars and starches you eat. To do this, you can start by dumping sweet drinks and having smaller portions of dessert.
7. Eat foods low on the Glycemic Index
If you’ve never heard of the Glycemic Index before, it’s a numerical scale that indicates how quickly and by how much a given food can raise blood sugar levels. [3] Just as refined white sugar itself works to raise blood sugar levels rapidly, so too do simple carbohydrates and foods high on the Glycemic Index. They include bread, pasta, cakes, cookies, processed foods, as well as sugary soda. The lower a food’s GI, the less it raises blood glucose. Foods with the lowest GI typically include proteins, many vegetables, and some fruits. These are the ones you should aim to eat most often.
8. Choose the right sweeteners
To help avoid the blood sugar roller coaster of highs and lows that come with consuming refined white sugars and high fructose corn syrup, try to choose more natural sweeteners instead. Opting for sweeteners like raw honey, dates, unsweetened apple sauce, and pure maple syrup in moderation will help prevent blood sugar spikes. Many of these natural sweeteners also have the added bonus of providing you with essential vitamins and minerals.
Lifestyle tips for stable blood sugar
9. Eat Breakfast
Would you like to know one of the easiest ways to set the stage for stable blood sugar levels all day? Start your day off right with a breakfast containing protein within an hour of waking up. Doing so will provide your body with the fuel it needs to slow the release of glucose and prevent carb cravings later on.
10. Balance your meals
Make sure that your main meals are balanced with healthy protein, healthy fats, and fibre. When we consume healthy sources of complex carbohydrates with plenty of protein and good fats, the glucose from the meal enters our blood more slowly. This is precisely what we want in order to maintain stable blood sugar levels.
11. Exercise
Exercise also helps to improve your insulin sensitivity; this means that your cells don’t ignore insulin’s call to get excess sugar out of the blood. Not to mention, when you exercise, your muscles are using up that sugar they absorbed from your blood. But you already knew that exercise is healthy, didn’t you?
12. Better manage stress
Would you believe that stress affects your blood sugar levels? Yup! Stress hormones increase your blood sugar levels. If you think about the "fight or flight" stress response, what fuel do your brain and muscles need to "fight" or "flee"? Sugar! When you are stressed, signals are sent to release stored forms of sugar back into the bloodstream, increasing blood sugar levels. So, try to reduce the stress you’re under and manage it more effectively. Simple tips are meditation, deep breathing, or gentle movement.
13. Get your Zzzzzz’s
Sleep goes hand-in-hand with stress. When you don’t get enough quality sleep, you tend to release stress hormones, have a higher appetite, and even get sugar cravings. Sleep is a crucial, often overlooked factor when it comes to keeping your blood sugar stable. Moreover, evidence suggests that lack of sleep or poor sleep quality increases your risk for diabetes. [4] Make sleep more of a priority - it will do your blood sugar (and the rest of your physical and mental health) good.
Conclusion
Your body is on a constant 24-hour quest to keep your blood sugar stable. The body has mechanisms in place to do this, but those mechanisms can get tired (resistant). Long-term blood sugar issues can spell trouble.
If you believe your blood sugar is out of whack, there are many nutrition and lifestyle approaches you can take to help keep your blood sugar stable. Minimizing excessive carbs, eating more protein and fibre, exercising, managing stress, and improving sleep are key to having stable blood sugar (and overall good health).
If you think your blood sugar is out of whack and would like to regain control, I’m here to help. Start by downloading my free guide to kicking sugar to the curb for good. You can also purchase my blood-sugar balancing recipe e-book to get you started with simple recipes designed to regain control over your blood sugar or book an appointment to see me for a nutritional consultation. We can discuss your individual needs and goals and create an individualized program designed for your unique body.
Regardless of what course of action you take, if your blood sugar is out of whack, I urge you to get started correcting it today.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and value your feedback. Comment below or drop me a line with what has worked for you or how you maintain steady blood sugar levels. I’d love to hear from you!
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