Why Balanced Blood Sugar is Key for Optimal Health
When we eat refined carbohydrates and sugar or we’re feeling stressed and anxious, our blood sugar can spike upward, leaving it to inevitably fall to low levels soon after. Spikes and dips (aka a blood sugar roller-coaster) can have immediate effects, such as fatigue, cravings for carbs/sugar/caffeine, and irritability, just to name a few. In the longer term, unstable blood sugar increases inflammation and has been linked to just about every chronic disease, from obesity and diabetes to Alzheimer’s, cancer and heart disease.
Here’s a more in depth look at how blood sugar imbalance may affect the body:
Weight
Chronically elevated blood sugar can result in the body holding onto excess fat. Why? Because it leads to insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas that helps remove sugar from your bloodstream and deliver it to the cells to be used as energy. When you have insulin resistance, your body stops responding normally to the messages from insulin. Blood sugar stays consistently high and the pancreas is forced to release higher and higher amounts of insulin in order to keep the blood sugar within normal levels. After a while, your body becomes so accustomed to high levels of insulin that it stops responding to its signals (aka your cells have become resistant to the actions of insulin). This leads to high blood sugar and high insulin. In this scenario, insulin becomes a fat storage hormone, storing all the excess glucose as fat, particularly around the mid-section. Visceral fat is associated with an elevated risk of chronic disease, such as diabetes, breast cancer and heart disease. Therefore, keeping your blood sugar balanced (not spiking and dropping) is one of the most important things you can do for weight loss and healthy weight maintenance.
Brain
Blood sugar instability can lead to mood imbalances. I’m sure we’ve all experienced feeling “hangry” when we go too long without eating. Wonky blood sugar levels may also have more damaging psychological effects, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, lack of focus or mental clarity, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s and other mood and brain disorders. Because the brain requires a steady supply of glucose to function optimally and continue processes such as cellular maintenance and the production of neurotransmitters, balanced blood sugar supports a healthy and happy brain.
Microbiome
Your microbiome, aka the 100 trillion microorganisms that inhabit your digestive tract, is affected by what you eat. Eating high amounts of sugar or refined carbs can feed the “bad” bacteria in your gut, which can lead to digestive discomfort, inflammation, cravings and other issues throughout the body. Alternatively, having a healthy population of beneficial bacteria in your gut can actually help you manage your blood sugar more effectively. Research shows that probiotics work to support healthy blood sugar levels by lowering fasting glucose and improving insulin sensitivity.
Hormones
Blood sugar levels affect how our hormones function. Excess sugar, for example, may lead to an increase in the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which can make you feel shaky, jittery, agitated, easily upset, or nervous. Reproductive hormones (such as estrogen and progesterone) are also negatively affected by unstable blood sugar. This is especially important for women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a common endocrine disorder characterized by blood sugar imbalance and insulin resistance.
Skin
Glycation occurs when a sugar molecule bonds to a protein molecule, inhibiting its normal functioning. High blood sugar can cause the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that degrade collagen and elastin and increase fine lines and wrinkles - not a beautiful effect for your skin!
Immune System
In the immune system, white blood cells work together to destroy invaders, including bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi, parasites and cancer. Sugar is known to impair the immune system, and has even been found to paralyze or weaken white blood cell function for hours at a time (1).
So now that you can appreciate why having balanced blood sugar is so important for optimal health, how do you know if you have a blood sugar problem?
Here are some common signs and symptoms of imbalanced blood sugar:
You crave sweets or breads and pastries...a lot!
Eating sweets doesn’t relieve your sugar cravings.
You become irritable and "hangry" if you miss a meal.
You find yourself needing caffeine to get through the day.
You become lightheaded if you miss a meal.
Eating makes you exhausted and in need of a nap.
It's difficult for you to lose weight.
You feel weak, shaky, or jittery pretty frequently,
You have to pee a lot.
You get agitated, easily upset, or nervous.
Your memory is not what it used to be.
Your vision is blurry.
Your waist is equal to or larger than your hips.
You have a low sex drive.
You're always thirsty.
If you identify with one or more of these symptoms, don’t fret! You can easily improve your blood sugar stability with diet and lifestyle choices. Here are two major pitfalls to avoid:
Blood sugar pitfall #1 - eating too many high-glycemic foods
The first step in controlling your blood sugar is understanding how food affects it. First, let’s start with the basics! We get energy from three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat and protein. Each of these nutrients has a different impact on your blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that significantly raises the blood sugar, which is why they are the one we need to be more mindful of when it comes to keeping our blood sugar balanced. Carbs are long chains of sugar molecules linked together. When you digest them, your body breaks them down into sugar to absorb them. Once the sugar is absorbed, your blood sugar level goes up.
When it comes to the impact a carbohydrate-rich food has on your blood sugar, there is a significant difference between whole food sources of carbs versus refined carbs and processed sugars.
Whole, unrefined plant foods come in a perfect package from nature, with fiber, water, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that help us regulate how the carbs are metabolized. Refined carbs and sugar, on the other hand, are a processed or isolated part of the original whole food they are derived from, are low in fiber, and digest and absorb rapidly, creating a greater spike in blood sugar. In other words, refined carbs and sugar have a high glycemic index, but a low nutrient density (meaning they are low in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants). They can also create further imbalance in the body, since eating simple sugars in isolation can deplete the body of important nutrients, such as the B vitamins and vitamin C. So, these are the types of carbs - such as candy, crackers, bread, pasta, cookies and cakes - that we want to reduce as much as possible or avoid entirely!
Whole food sources of carbs, such as gluten-free grains, beans/legumes, starchy vegetables (sweet potatoes, white potatoes, corn, peas, root veggies) and fruit, are great to include in moderation. A portion of carbs is 15 grams, which equates to about ½ cup cooked grains, beans, starchy vegetables, or fresh fruit (or a baseball-sized piece of fruit). Feel free to include a portion of whole food complex carbs at each meal.
For more information on eating for balanced blood sugar, check out the post 12 ways to balance your blood sugar.
Blood sugar pitfall #2: not managing stress effectively
Did you know that your blood sugar rises when you become stressed or anxious? If the answer is no, you're definitely not alone. Most of us know that stress can be detrimental for our overall health, but you might not have made the connection between stress and blood sugar just yet.
It might seem surprising that there's such a strong connection, but when you learn about the physiology of the stress response, it makes a lot of sense. When you're stressed, your body activates its "fight or flight" physiological response and releases cortisol. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid, a hormone that produces blood sugar from the liver and reduces sensitivity on insulin receptors. It increases blood sugar levels so that you have ample glucose to provide quick energy in a dangerous situation in which you need to fight or flee.
This is fine as long as it happens only once in a while. The problem that most of us face is that we’re constantly activating our “fight or flight” response throughout the day, which leads to chronically high cortisol and high blood sugar levels. As a result, more and more insulin must be released from the pancreas, eventually leading to insulin resistance and driving fat storage. This can explain why people often gain weight during a stressful time in their lives — even if they don't change their eating habits.
For this reason, managing your stress is effectively just as important as the food choices you’re making when it comes to keeping your blood sugar in check. For more information on strategies for reducing stress, check out the blog posts - Adrenal overdrive? Here’s how to overcome it naturally and 10 Natural Remedies for Stress and Anxiety.
Reference:
(1) https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/26/11/1180/4732762