Blood Sugar Balance Basics
Feb 6, 2022
Blood Sugar Balance Basics
To understand blood sugar, we must first understand glucose. Glucose is a monosaccharide, “mono” meaning it is only one sugar. This also means it’s in it’s smallest form chemically and can therefore be used by our body immediately. Glucose is found in carbohydrate-rich foods such as breads, fruits, vegetables and dairy products. When we eat these foods, our body will break them down into its simplest sugar, glucose, as its primary form of fuel.
Carbohydrate foods that can be broken down into glucose are an important part of the human diet. We have relied on the quick burst of energy from glucose since the dawn of our existence. Glucose is great for immediate energy, like when we need to run or sprint, or even if we need to think and strategize. Our body prefers to use glucose as its energy source if it’s available. Also, the complex sources of carbohydrates like whole grains, whole pieces of fruit or even unprocessed dairy products provide numerous other health benefits like soluble and insoluble fibers, phytonutrients, and other vitamins and minerals.
We run into issues in our modern-day American diet because of refined sugars and simple forms of carbohydrate make-up a good portion of our diet. With the advent of fast and processed foods, Americans, specifically, are consuming 3x the amount of added sugar than is recommended for optimal health. On average, American adults are eating 77g of added sugar a day. What’s worse is that American children are eating 81g/day on average! This equates to about 60-65 pounds of added sugar every year. This is an outrageous tax on our health, and our body’s simply cannot handle it.
So let’s talk about how, exactly, our body uses sugar. You may have heard of the hormone, insulin. Insulin is excreted by the pancreas whenever we eat a carbohydrate food. Insulin is responsible for turning glucose into energy. If we eat too much glucose than we need at that moment, insulin is also responsible for helping to store the glucose in our muscles, fat cells or in our liver for later use.
There are two problems with this picture. Since we are eating so much sugar and not using it (think of our sedentary lifestyles), we are storing it on our body as fat. This is one of the main contributors to our rising obesity epidemic.
The second issue with this picture is that since we are eating so much sugar, our pancreas gets overworked and tired, making it more difficult for it to pump out the insulin needed to regulate the mass amounts of sugar we are eating. Simultaneously (and maybe even worse) our body becomes “numb” to the insulin. Almost like we don’t even recognize that it’s there. This is called insulin resistance and is one of the hallmark signs of pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. There are over 34 million Americans (about 10.5% of the population) who have Type 2 diabetes. And the stage just before you can be officially classified as having diagnosed Diabetes is called “prediabetes” of which nearly 88 million Americans also have.
I’ve mentioned before that there are very real racial disparities among those who are the highest risk for getting Diabetes. Hispanics, American Indians, Blacks and African Americans are all twice as likely to be diagnosed with Diabetes than non-Hispanic whites, and much of this is related to food accessibility in minority neighborhoods. If you haven’t already watched my video on from June 9th titled “Demanding Better Access to Quality Food for Our Black Neighbors”, please watch it.
When our blood sugar is out of balance (due to any one of the reasons mentioned above), our body reacts. Some signs of blood sugar imbalance can include: mood swings, irritability, anxiety, depression, brain fog, insomnia, cravings (especially for sweets), excessive thirst, drowsiness during the day, difficulty losing weight, among many others that might not seem obvious at first.
Understanding how to balance blood sugar levels is not only a powerful tool when dealing with your own moods and overall energy, but with your child’s nutrition as well.
Here are some tips to managing your blood glucose throughout the day to maintain your balance:
· Examine what’s in your favorite foods. Begin by looking at the nutrition facts labels of your favorite foods and treats and analyzing how much sugar is added sugar. If any type of sugar is listed within the top 3-5 ingredients, put it down and find a better choice.
· Take your fasting blood glucose. This isn’t necessarily easy to do from home if you’re not Diabetic and have a monitor ready; but you can do it next time you’re at doctor’s office. Make sure you go early in the morning before you eat food! This will help give you an idea of how your blood glucose and insulin are doing overnight.
· Consider how you feel after eating certain foods. Food is supposed to make you feel good and energized. If you get sleepy after a meal, or bloated or agitated or run down, these are all signs that you probably are eating something that isn’t compatible with your body. Keep a food diary so you can better keep track of things you might be eating and start making connections.
· Choose whole foods with fiber. Fiber helps to slow down the metabolism of sugar in your blood, which is why fruits are a better choice than cake. Both have sugar. One has fiber (and also other important vitamins and minerals).
· Pair your macronutrients. It’s always better to eat a carbohydrate or sugar-rich food alongside a protein, fat or fiber food. All of this will help to slow down the uptake of sugar and also keep you full longer.
· Drink plenty of water. It’s important to stay hydrated anyways. Drinking water also helps to support the kidneys to flush our excess blood sugar through the urine. Keep in mind, when sugar builds up in our blood, it makes our blood sticky and slow. Water helps to keep things moving!
· Move your body! This doesn’t have to mean that you need to do a hard workout. Walking, gardening, stretching or even laughing with you friends helps to pull glucose into your muscles for use there, rather than just staying in your blood with no where to go.
· Control stress. When we are stressed, we secrete hormones like glucagon and cortisol, which inhibit insulin from working (because if we were physically in a stressful situation, we needed glucose to be available immediately in case we needed to run!) Try meditations or taking a warm bath or spending time with people who life you up and love you.
The long and short of it is this: the best sugar you can eat is from complex carbohydrates and fruits. Don’t be fooled: even “healthy” foods have added sugar! Choose not to be a bystander in your food decisions and take some action against all the added sugar we are eating without our even realizing it! Your health, your mood, your sense of wellbeing will all benefit.
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