I’ve had a thing about balancing blood sugar ever since I trained as a Nutritional Therapist. I’m sure all my ex-patients will remember me going on about keeping their blood sugar stable. I have hypoglycemia so my blood sugar quickly drops too low if I don’t eat the right food or I don’t eat regularly. I think however, this has been an asset to my profession as I’ve been able to judge the effects of various foods, stressful situations or lack of food, to name a few triggers.
Nowadays we are constantly being warned about blood sugar levels being too high and the implications on pre-diabetes and diabetes, but what seems to be overlooked as far as I am concerned is our blood sugar being too low. OK – diabetics have to watch that too but they are then encouraged to eat sugary foods if it happens. As far as I am concerned, blood sugar needs to stay within a certain range, being neither too high nor too low, and foods such as sugar and over-processed carbohydrates are best avoided in order to keep it within this range and in order to keep us healthy.
So many people whether diabetic or not go too long without eating, then when their blood sugar drops, they crave the wrong type of food. When our blood sugar drops too low, we crave sugar and carbohydrates – it’s the body’s way of trying to tell us that our blood sugar has dropped. However, if we eat the right kind of food (complex carbohydrates, high-fibre vegetables, proteins and fats) more regularly, then we will support our blood sugar and it won’t drop too low. Neither will it rise too high because we are not consuming quick release starches that give our blood sugar a spike.