Newsletters: January-February 2009
Controlling Your Blood Sugar
Natural Times January/February 2009
By Sandy Beck
“Every morning, about 10, I crash. I have no energy, I get shaky and I can’t think straight.”
Dr. Ness, a local family doctor, says he frequently hears this from his patients. Many attribute their daily dive to hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. What is this blood sugar thing anyway?
When you eat carbohydrates, your amazing digestive system breaks it down into sugar molecules. Simple sugar, like glucose, is our body’s main fuel. Most of the glucose from a meal is stored in the liver for later use. The rest goes directly into the bloodstream.
The pancreas secretes insulin which works to lower blood sugar levels by moving glucose from the blood into the body's cells. When blood sugar levels fall too far, the pancreas secretes another hormone, glucagon, which retrieves sugar stored in the liver. The adrenal glands also secrete adrenaline and cortisol to raise low blood sugar levels.
But, when blood sugar drops too low and, for one reason or another, your body isn’t following the master plan, classic hypoglycemic symptoms occur, which may include: hunger, nervousness, weakness, dizziness, confusion, cold sweats, shakiness, anxiety and even fainting.
A few years ago, when a good friend observed my low blood sugar symptoms every morning, she said, “This is exactly what my (diabetic) husband experiences when he takes too much insulin. You need to have this checked out.”
People with diabetes have too much sugar in their blood. Diabetics can have hypoglycemia if they take too much insulin or diabetes medicine, don’t eat properly, or exercise without eating.
After a glucose tolerance test, I learned that I have the type of hypoglycemia that can show its ugly head a few hours (one to three) after a meal—reactive hypoglycemia.
Reactive hypoglycemia is actually pretty widespread. In an interview in the Vegetarian Times, Jonathan Wright, a physician in Kent, Washington who specializes in nutritional biochemistry, called reactive hypoglycemia the refined-carbohydrate disease.
Sweetened breakfast cereals and other simple carbohydrates raise blood sugar much higher and faster than do complex-carbohydrate foods like multi-grain bread. Wright said that these foods create “a ‘hair trigger pancreas’ that releases too much insulin too quickly in an effort to clear the blood of glucose. After a while, high blood insulin can become a chronic problem (that) can cause reactive hypoglycemia.”
Or, like some other ailments, we could be genetically pre-disposed to this condition.
“We have genetic potentials, but the expression of those genes is very much influenced by our diet and environment—from food sources to plastics to pesticides to chemicals in floor coverings. So we are empowered to make choices more than we think,” says Dr. Ness.
He asked what I ate for breakfast. My usual is raisin bran cereal with a banana and orange juice. The sweetened cereal and fruit was my high-sugar recipe for mid-morning disaster.
“We should all listen to our grandmothers who told us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” says Dr. Ness. “A breakfast that is high in protein (protein helps moderate swings in blood glucose levels) and complex carbohydrates has a stabilizing effect on your blood sugar level for the rest of the day. Save the fruits, especially tropical fruits that are high in sugar, for the afternoon.”
Here are some breakfasts that will keep you going strong for hours:
- Multi-grain toast and cottage cheese. Nancy’s cottage cheese has a bonus of friendly bacteria.
- Quick egg white omelet. Coat a small Pyrex dish with olive oil. Add Organic Valley egg whites, pieces of low-fat cheese and cover with waxed paper. Microwave for about 90 seconds. Serve on multi-grain toast.
- Dr. Ness’s favorite breakfast: old-fashioned, unrefined oatmeal (without the sugar or raisins) and a hard-boiled egg. I like “eggy-oatmeal”—a soft-boiled egg served on top of the cereal.
- This is best served with The New York Times: Multi-grain bagel, fat-free cream cheese and smoked salmon (lox).
- If you’re in a hurry, combine one cup skimmed milk and one scoop Peaceful Planet Unsweetened Super Spirulina Protein Shake in the blender. Pour into a to-go cup and drink it while you drive to work.
To keep blood sugar at an even keel throughout the day, Dr. Ness recommends eating small meals and healthy snacks high in protein and complex carbs—nuts, peanut butter, cottage cheese, tofu or beans—about every three hours.
If you start the day with a good breakfast, you’ll feel like a new person, and you’ll make your grandmother happy too.
