Blood Sugar 101
Oh my, Blood Sugar Regulation is a huge topic and it’s not particularly sexy as far as food topics go, but it’s SO important to everyone, even if many people don’t realise it.
This is one of the key Functional Nutritional Therapy foundations that I spend a lot of time working on together with all clients, as it has so many far reaching impacts on overall health.
No matter what your health journey looks like, balancing your blood sugar will help you to feel better and take you out of the danger zone of developing Type 2 Diabetes (T2D).
Blood sugar regulation affects all aspects of how our bodies work, including but not limited to:
- Energy production and balance
- Hormonal balance
- Brain health, mood, memory and cognitive function
Why should you care about blood sugar?
This might not have popped up on your radar unless you’ve been diagnosed with T2D, know someone who has, or can tick some of the standard risk factor boxes (see Diabetes NZ website for a list).
Genes are a factor, but just because family members may have T2D, doesn’t mean you will automatically end up with it. I like the saying ‘Your genes load the gun, but your environment pulls the trigger’.
And while genes play a role in its development, the food and lifestyle choices you make daily can move you along a spectrum of blood sugar dysregulation, more quickly than you might think.
You only need to look at New Zealand’s reputation to realise how much of an epidemic it is and at scarily younger ages.
NEW ZEALANDERS CONSUME ON AVERAGE 54 KILOGRAMS OF SUGAR PER YEAR - OR 37 TEASPOONS OF SUGAR PER DAY (Professor Mike Berridge, 2017)
Some of the early and even more serious signs that your blood sugar regulation might be compromised (too high, or too low), are often not recognised, such as:
- Increased cravings for sugar, refined carbohydrates or caffeine
- Feeling like something sweet even after a large meal
- Increased hunger and reduced satiation from meals
- Weight gain
- Increased blood pressure
- Fatigue and low energy levels
- Irritability, anxiety and nervousness
- Feeling light-headed if meals are missed
- Feeling shaky between meals
- Sweating or irregular heartbeat
- Headaches
- Memory loss
- Difficulty concentration or thinking clearly
- Blurred vision
- Insomnia
Generally, the further down this list you recognise symptoms, the closer you may be along the road to serious blood sugar problems.
YOUR BODY TREATS BALANCING BLOOD SUGAR AS AN EMERGENCY AND WILL PRIORITISE THIS OVER OTHER FUNCTIONS SUCH AS SEX HORMONE PRODUCTION
One of the most important steps you can take if you are experiencing hormonal imbalances of any kind, is to work on keeping your blood sugar levels stable.
How does your body regulate blood sugar levels?
Blood sugar (glucose) levels, are one of the many variables that your body is constantly working hard behind the scenes to balance, within a tight range.
It involves a delicate dance of interactions and exchanges, where your central nervous system (CNS) is the choreographer and the following organs and your hormones are the dancers (and stage hands!):
- Pancreas
- Adrenal Glands
- Adipose tissue (aka fat cells)
- Liver
- Skeletal Muscle
- The secretion of important hormones like insulin, glucagon, epinephrine and norepinephrine
- Cortisol via the HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands)
Every time you eat something, this has an impact on your blood sugar levels and your body responds to keep those levels within range. Your body will try and release stored glucose (glycogen) if your blood sugar gets too low and store glucose away (as glycogen) if your blood sugar gets too high.
IF YOUR BLOOD SUGAR IS OUT OF BALANCE, YOUR BODY IS USING SUGARS AND PROTEINS AS A SOURCE OF FUEL, RATHER THAN YOUR FAT
Every BODY is different, meaning glucose will affect everyone differently. One individual can handle eating 4 pieces of fruit a day, but for someone else they may only be able to have 1 before it negatively impacts their blood sugar.
Diet
Sometime sugar doesn’t look like sugar! Many people tend to think of sugar as the sparkly, tiny cube-shaped crystals that usually live in a sugar bowl, jar or container in the cupboard. And yes, that’s the pure hard stuff typically found in lollies, biscuits, cake, chocolate – you get the idea.
Then there are other foods such as breads, pasta, processed snacks etc, which don’t look like ‘sugar’, however they can have an equally detrimental effect on your blood sugar and health. This is also where reading food labels to look for sources of hidden sugar becomes important in sniffing it out when trying to minimise sugar in your diet.
Yes, fruit has natural sugar in it, as well as many antioxidants, fibre and other nutrients and for many people they can quite happily eat a few pieces of fruit a day, as a part of a properly prepared, nutrient dense, whole food diet. But this is very individual and needs to be consumed with an awareness of how it makes you feel.
And even some natural forms of sugar (maple syrup I’m looking at you!) can send your blood sugar high. Natural forms of glucose may have the benefit of various vitamins and minerals but will still cause your blood sugar to spike high.
MAPLE SYRUP, DATES, COCONUT SUGAR, MOLASSES, RICE MALT SYRUP, RAW HONEY – EVEN IF UNREFINED AND ORGANIC WILL CAUSE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR TO SPIKE
Sugar Replacements – Yes or No??
I could write a whole separate blog on this subject alone! While working on your blood sugar, there are a few natural sugar substitutes that can help get you through the rough patches, without sending your blood sugar levels surging.
These are natural, plant-based sources such as:
- Stevia
- Erythritol
- Xylitol
- Monk fruit
- Yacon
Whilst these are great substitutes compared to the real deal sugar cane, I usually advise clients that they can continue to feed the desire for consuming sweet foods and for some people are best left for once your sugar monster has been tamed a little.
My advice re artificial sweeteners, stay away! Anything we consume should always be as unprocessed and natural as possible. As above there are many good substitutes, so stick to these.
Acute or Chronic Stress
Then, when you think you’re on top of sugar in your diet, another factor that really impacts your blood sugar is stress – eeeek! Yup, when you get stressed and your body enters fight or flight mode (thank you adrenal glands and cortisol), it’s not usually because of a sabre-tooth tiger anymore, but could be a traffic jam, an argument with your partner etc, and this can also spike your blood sugar.
Apart from the annoying and worrisome symptoms mentioned above, as you rollercoaster your way through the day with high blood sugar spikes and then the resulting low (hello 3pm slow blinking), what this does is constantly ask your pancreas to release insulin to help store the excess glucose away.
Eventually your cells (in your liver, muscle and fatty tissue) become resistant to what the insulin is asking them to do and won’t store anymore glucose. Your blood sugar is then elevated, and symptoms (as mentioned earlier) escalate and eventually you could be diagnosed with T2D.
Lack of movement or exercise
Movement and exercise can help to process out stress hormones more quickly, use up excess blood sugar and increase insulin sensitivity (its effectiveness). In the short-term, when your muscles contract during activity, your cells are able to take up glucose and use it for energy whether insulin is available or not (Richter & Hargreaves, 2013).
Poor Sleep
Poor sleep is associated with poor blood sugar regulation (McHill & Wright, 2017), so ensuring you get the right amount of sleep for your body, is essential. This is a double-edged sword; poor sleep can disrupt blood sugar regulation and imbalanced blood sugar can negatively affect sleep!
MANAGING STRESS, GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP AND REGULARLY EXERCISING ARE ALL CRITICAL TO MANAGING BLOOD SUGAR
Don’t we need some sugar for energy though?
So, you might be thinking, ok I understand a bit about blood sugar now, but how does blood sugar relate to how much energy I have?
The evolutionary purpose of eating food was to provide our bodies with energy. Our bodies developed 3 systems to do this, depending on how quickly we needed the energy, and how long it needed to last.
The Citric Acid Cycle or Krebs Cycle relies on oxygen and a series of complex chemical reactions where the mitochondria in your cells convert macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein) into energy a.k.a adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Stay with me, this is important because this helps explain how your body uses different foods to give you energy!
Although our bodies can use any of the three macronutrients for fuel, certain ratios of macronutrients work better for certain individuals based on their ancestry, activity levels, stress levels, insulin sensitivity, and metabolic flexibility.
Being very connected with the food you eat and how it makes you feel, is key to understanding and moving towards what your own unique macronutrient ratios are.
One thing that really helps balance energy throughout the day is making sure you include all 3 macronutrients in each of your meals.
Carbohydrates – think of these as kindling, that are good for starting your metabolic fire – but generally don’t last very long so you have to keep topping up with more. Great for short burst of energy!
Carbs come from many different sources, including vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and simple sugars. Depending on your activity levels, body composition goals, and efficiency burning carbs and fat for fuel, you may need more or less carbohydrates.
Regardless of the quantity, try to eat the most nutrient-dense, unrefined carbs you can. As an example, Kumara is rich in manganese, a mineral that plays a key role in how your body uses fats and carbohydrates for energy.
Fats – think of these as the logs, that will keep your metabolic fire going all night long!
We have the capacity to store a lot more energy as fat (triglycerides), than what we do to store glucose (as glycogen aka carbs).
This energy store of fat is what we use when we need long lasting stamina and your body needs to be able to switch over from using carbs as your primary energy source, to using fats.
It is extremely important to ensure the quality of fats. As toxins can bioaccumulate in fat tissue of any animals you eat, try to choose fats from clean, unprocessed sources e.g. ethically raised grass-fed animals, organic plants, nuts and seeds as well as cold-pressed oils.
Healthy Fats is a whole other topic that is very important to optimal health and there will be another blog post on this coming up soon!
Protein - Protein is also great at keeping your blood sugar levels even and you feeling full and satisfied when it’s converted to ATP (energy!).
It’s quite hard to have too much protein as both the brain and gut have innate mechanisms that carefully regulate our desire for protein, so listen to your body if in doubt as protein need is very individual.
As with fat, when you choose animal protein, ideally ensure it’s from ethically raised grass-fed animals, free range pasture-raised chickens/eggs and carefully chosen sustainably caught fish. Plant sources of protein e.g., legumes and rice, need to be properly prepared using soaking and sprouting methods.
The end goal
When you can achieve stable blood sugar levels over time, above and beyond avoiding serious complications, the daily benefits are:
- Having consistent energy throughout the day
- Avoiding a mid-afternoon slump
- Not needing caffeine or sugar to pick you up
- Feeling satisfied after main meals
- Reducing inflammation
- Being able to tap into fat stores for energy without the use of a temporary and unsustainable fad diet
- No or less HANGRY events!
When you get to this point, it’s what we call “Metabolic Flexibility”. Thousands of years ago before the agricultural revolution, when food had to be hunted and gathered, being able to survive periods of food scarcity and tap into your fat store was a matter of survival.
Metabolic flexibility is a goal to aim for slowly and by paying careful attention to the cues and signals your body sends you.
How can you support Blood Sugar Regulation?
Your body is incredibly resilient and will nearly always come to the party once you fuel it with whole foods and remove stressors.
The journey to stable blood sugar and metabolic flexibility takes time, some planning and the ability to pull yourself back on track when you slip-up (which everyone does!).
There are specific nutrients that are known to support blood sugar regulation and the list of following whole foods tick those nutrient boxes, so try to include some of these in your diet!
- Almonds
- Asparagus
- Avocado
- Brewers Yeast
- Buckwheat
- Cauliflower
- Eggs
- Kale
- Kumara
- Lentils
- Macadamia Nuts
- Olive Oil
- Pecans
- Pistachios
- Pumpkin Seeds
- Seaweed
- Sunflower Seeds
Being aware of how to keep your blood sugar levels stable is absolutely essential to good health but doesn’t often get talked about or explained.
There are many strategies, tools and tips I use that are designed to specifically work to support each client in their unique journey to health.
References:
Professor Mike Berridge, L. M. (2017). Sugar, rum and tobacco taxes and Public Health in New Zealand. Bidet Williams Books; 1st edition (August 6, 2017).
McHill, A. W., & Wright, K. P., Jr (2017). Role of sleep and circadian disruption on energy expenditure and in metabolic predisposition to human obesity and metabolic disease. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 18 Suppl 1, 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12503
Richter, E. A., & Hargreaves, M. (2013). Exercise, GLUT4, and skeletal muscle glucose uptake. Physiological reviews, 93(3), 993–1017. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00038.2012
First published in the Happy and Healthy Newsletter 03/09/2021