Today’s article comes to us from Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator Emmeline Huddleston, RD, LD, CDCES.
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Let’s talk about blood sugar. A common misconception surrounding blood sugar is that folks think the conversation doesn’t “apply” to them if they don’t have diabetes. But this is simply not the case — balancing our blood sugar is something we should all be conscious of. Many suffer from symptoms of unbalanced blood sugar and are completely unaware of the signs and the long-term adverse effects.
Here, we’ll review the impact blood sugar levels have on your overall health, the signs and symptoms of unbalanced blood sugar, and five easy ways to start making a difference TODAY.
Blood Sugar: What It Is + Why You Should Care (Seriously.)
Blood glucose, more commonly referred to as blood sugar, is the amount of sugar in our bloodstream at a given time. It comes from the foods we eat — primarily carbs — that are broken down into glucose and released in the blood. It’s also our body’s major energy source, impacting almost every part of the body, from organ function and weight to hormones, vision, and more. Having too much blood sugar can result in what’s called a blood sugar spike.
Much like riding a roller coaster, a blood sugar spike will cause blood sugar to rise rapidly, followed by an untimely crash at the end. We’ve all been there. This often accounts for feeling tired and sluggish after eating foods high in sugar or overconsumption of carbohydrates.
The repeated process of blood sugar spikes and crashes can result in fatigue, hunger cravings, irritation/anxiety, increased urination, and frequent skin infections. Long-term results include weight gain, inflammation, and increased risk for diabetes, stroke, and kidney, liver, or heart disease. The goal is to stay off the blood sugar roller coaster and keep your blood sugar (and mood) stable without repeated rises and crashes.
What happens to your body after eating
To learn how we can better support our blood sugar, it’s important to understand the basic concepts of what’s going on in the body post-meal. After eating, our blood sugar begins to rise, triggering the release of insulin, a hormone produced by our pancreas. Insulin acts as the key that allows blood sugar to enter our cells to store energy for later use.
As our cells absorb more blood sugar, levels begin to fall in the bloodstream. This fall in blood sugar triggers the release of glucagon, another hormone produced by the pancreas, that stimulates the release of stored sugar in the liver. The coworking relationship between insulin and glucagon maintains the blood sugar balance in the body. However, creating those consistent spikes can cause your body to stop responding to insulin, leading to the development of insulin resistance and potentially diabetes.
Insulin resistance has become a bit of a weight loss buzz phrase recently, so I’ll explain. Basically, when you’re over-producing insulin due to consistently high blood sugar, your body reaches a tipping point and can become resistant to insulin. When that happens, excess blood sugar is stored as fat rather than being directed to the liver or muscles for energy.
Monitoring how and what we eat can help our hormones do their job without burnout — exactly what we’re all looking for, right? Now, let’s look at some simple tips and tricks you can incorporate daily to balance your blood sugar and stay off the roller coaster!
5 EASY WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR
1. Always have a veggie starter.
One of the most beautiful things about fiber is that it helps to slow our digestion. Slowing our digestion equals a reduction in the blood sugar spike after eating. When digestion is slowed, so is glucose absorption from the carbohydrates we’re eating. Fiber also helps us stay fuller longer and prevent mindless snacking between meals.
Starting your meals with a good source of fiber, preferably non-starchy vegetables, will help balance your blood sugar and avoid the dreaded rollercoaster effect. This could look like starting your meal with a salad, a veggie dish like Brussels sprouts, green beans, or cauliflower, having edamame before sushi, or grabbing a raw cucumber to crunch on.
Your veggie starter can be baked, raw, boiled, or combined with a source of protein and healthy fat, like a salad with balsamic vinaigrette and walnuts or parmesan-roasted broccoli. Olives and pickles count here, too! To go the extra mile, try to eat your carbohydrate dishes, like rice, pasta, bread, and potatoes, last. Eating your fiber first and carbs last stimulates the hormone GLP-1 — which you might have heard of due to popular weight loss medications like Ozempic — to delay gastric emptying and help us feel fuller longer.
2. Take a walk after your largest meal of the day.
Yes, it’s really that simple — and free, and convenient! Exercise like walking increases insulin sensitivity, which helps our body use glucose more efficiently after our meal and, in turn, lowers the blood sugar spike. In fact, walking is so effective for lowering blood sugar, that some people with diabetes are able to decrease their insulin dosage if they take a walk after eating.
Walking also aids digestion in general, as it induces blood flow and supports our hormones. Even a five-minute walk post-meal has shown beneficial results in lowering blood sugar. However, the longer, the better. Aim to walk within 60 to 90 minutes after eating for best results.
3. Use food science to your advantage.
This one is really a multi-tip suggestion for applying food science to lower the blood sugar curve.
- Always cook your pasta noodles al dente. This lowers their glycemic index and takes the starch longer to digest, thereby reducing the blood sugar spike.
- Turn your foods into resistant starches. This is done by heating and cooking certain foods, like rice and potatoes, then allowing them to cool down before eating. This counts even if you reheat them after the cooling process. Resistant starches, as their name suggests, resist digestion and ferment in the large intestine, providing good bacteria to your gut and slowing the blood sugar spike.
- Lastly, when choosing your bananas, the greener, the better. Green (less ripe) bananas have more resistant starch and less sugar. The riper (and more brown) a banana gets, the more sugar it has and the more likely it is to affect your blood sugar.
4. Switch out half of your starchy carbs for a higher fiber source.
Let’s face it; here in America, we are often overserved when it comes to carbs — think about that massive plate of spaghetti and meatballs or curry served with a full plate of rice.
An easy way to have your cake and eat it too is to cut that portion of starchy carbs (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes) in half and sub in a high-fiber carbohydrate source.
A great example would be adding black beans to your rice or using half white pasta and half red lentil pasta. This increase in fiber served with our starchy carbs will slow digestion (which we love) and lower the blood sugar spike. Some great high-fiber carbohydrate options include quinoa, farro, bulgur, beans and chickpeas, and lentil or chickpea pasta.
5. Ditch the “naked” carbs.
By naked, I mean eating a meal or snack consisting only of carbs, such as a slice of toast, a side of fries, or a bowl of cereal and milk. As much as we need our carbohydrates, we want to avoid eating them alone unless used for a quick fuel source, such as during exercise. Instead, we want to “dress our carbs up” with lean protein, fiber, and healthy fats. These three aid in slowing digestion as they take longer to metabolize than carbohydrates, which we know by now is key to decreasing the blood sugar spike.
This is related to the concept of food sequencing, which involves a preferred order of food intake: veggies (fiber) first, followed by protein and fats, and ending with carbohydrates. Even if we don’t eat them in this order, it is helpful for blood sugar control to always pair carbohydrates with lean protein, a fiber source, and healthy fat to provide a balanced plate and keep blood sugar stable. This could look like adding a side of broccoli to your fettuccini Alfredo with chicken or having your BBQ chicken with a small portion of potato salad and baked beans, plus a large side of green beans.
This goes for desserts, too — try to have your desserts after a balanced meal and not as a stand-alone treat. Save your dessert for last — and add a post-meal walk if possible!
And voila! You’re off the roller coaster.
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