Blood Sugar Management: Introduction & Basics

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Blood Sugar Management: Introduction & Basics (12/28/05)

Note: All times will vary with the individual. Your mileage may be different. And while we're at it, I'm not a doctor so take all of this with a grain of salt. Talk with a doctor before you do anything related to this.

Blood Sugar Management:
Introduction & Basics, Techniques for Controlling Blood Sugar

Our bodies are fueled by glucose, which we get by eating three classes of food called macronutrients:

Carbohydrates
Protein
Fat

Once the food has been eaten the body begins working on it immediately. It is broken down in the stomach to provide us with the glucose we need, as well as for raw material like minerals and essential fatty acids which we also need. Each macronutrient has to be processed in a different way before it can be converted to glucose.

Carbohydrates are the easiest to convert, and come in two sub-classes:
- Simple carbohydrates are glucose, or darn close to it. They enter the blood stream almost immediately. The glucose "peak" is probably at 30 minutes. Beware: Most alcohols count as simple carbohydrates, including "low carb beer".
- Complex carbohydrates are very close to glucose, and can take anywhere from a half hour to 2 hours before their entirely processed into glucose. The glucose "peak" is 1 hour in. Whole wheat bread and brown rice are examples of complex carbohydrates.
Proteins take yet more enzymes to break down, and should be processed within three and a half hours, however the peak is at 2 hours. Chicken and beef are proteins.
Fat takes even more enzymes than protein to break down, so the peak is 3 hours in and the glucose from them won't even begin to be really available until the 1 hour mark. Lard, butter, and olive oil are all examples of fats.

Here's how it looks on a graph:

Glucose from breakdown of macronutrients

Assuming a balanced meal has been eaten, with all three macronutrients, the glucose line will be above the starting mark for about 5 hours:

Glucose breakdown from a balanced meal

Since there is a bit of lag until the glucose is processed that means we'll want to have a meal about 4 hours in. The body will actually pick up on the decreasing slope of the line and trigger an urge for food to make that happen. Gurgling in the stomach has nothing to do with this unfortunately. That's just the sound of food moving through the intestines. Generally, if you are thinking about food, it's time to eat!

Now, our body is pretty smart and manages all of this using a chemical called insulin. The insulin basically peters the glucose value by slightly slowing it's digestion. In this way it can be stored for a bit as the original food in the stomach and made to last longer.

Some folks can't make insulin, or can't make enough of it, so they run a danger of going too high, which is called diabetes:

Glucose breakdown for diabetics

Others produce a little too much of it, which is called hypoglycemia:

Glucose breakdown for hypoglycemics

Diabetics will manage this by very carefully eating things that won't send their blood sugar too high and/or with insulin shots. Because of this they actually run a chance of slipping into hypoglycemia if they inject too much insulin into themselves. When that happens, the blood sugar has to be brought up again by eating more food.

People who have hypoglycemia naturally, without diabetes, have to follow a similar strategy but since insulin shots won't help them, they have to avoid sending the insulin too high in the first place. Failing that, if they do go into hypoglycemia, they have to bring the blood sugar up by eating more food as well. That is where things get tricky though, because that effort to bring the sugar up can actually trigger a release of more insulin, making it all that harder to get back to a normal blood sugar and setting the situation up for a very nasty tug of war.

Here's a complete picture of the normal situation, with the "danger" sections of diabetes and hypoglycemia:

Complete picture of Glucose breakdown information

There are signs when a person has gone into a danger section. At first people observing them will just see a change in their personality. They might get grumpy or hyper. If they go further into danger some physical signs will appear: headaches, shaking, cold sweats, hot flashes, tunnel vision, passing out, and others. Unfortunately one of the primary ones is a difficulty in thinking, so the person in danger will be less likely to realize it, putting them in further danger.

Why is all of this important? A person can be moderately hypoglycemic - enough that they get the physical symptoms but not quite enough to make them pass out. Others can be slightly diabetic or slightly hypoglycemic. Diabetes and Hypoglycemia are disorders on a spectrum, and most people probably tilt slightly in one direction. If you experience any of these symptoms often try making a note of when it happens, when you last ate, and what was in that meal. You just might discover you tilt in one direction and need to watch what you eat a little more carefully.

For technique suggestions, please click on techniques below.

Blood Sugar Management:
Introduction & Basics, Techniques for Controlling Blood Sugar