Blood Sugar Management: Techniques for Controlling Blood Sugar

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Blood Sugar Management: Techniques for Controlling Blood Sugar (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

With all of that out of the way lets look at some basic techniques we can use to manage blood sugar. I mentioned the basics in the introduction:

Avoid high blood sugar in the first place
Reacting to high blood sugar
Reacting to low blood sugar

Avoid high blood sugar in the first place
This technique should be easier than it is. Basically, the one class of foods that will trigger the largest insulin release is simple carbs, so avoiding simple carbs should do the trick. But what does that mean? Well...

No soda - it's almost all sugar. I'm serious. When you look at that bottle just picture the liquid as all sugar. They actually use a soda for the glucose tolerance tests.
No fruit juices - loads of fructose without much else, sometimes almost as much sugar as a soda.
No candy - sugar again.
No snacks - unless they are "natural" or Peanut Butter ones, and even then they're risky.
No alcohol - believe it or not, it's mostly sugar but just in an alcohol form. I'll leave the explanation to a chemist.
No "refined" items - white bread, white rice, most pastries, etc.. If its white and it isn't cauliflower, don't eat it.
No starchy foods - out goes corn and potatoes.

Complicated list, isn't it? It gets worse. Most of the items in the supermarket have high fructose corn syrup in them, to sweeten them and make them more palatable to consumers. Oddly America's obesity rate has only sky rocketed since they started using this stuff. Anyway, it is also a simple carb, and depending on how sensitive you are to sugar this one thing may very well eliminate half of the grocery store for you. Sorry.

The one technique I can't recommend enough is shopping the periphery of grocery stores. That's where all the fresh, natural stuff is, straight from nature. You can venture beyond this once you've got an idea of what products have this crap in them but for now most of the stuff on the periphery should be safe. By the way, if you've salt triggered high blood pressure this is a good technique too, as they like to use salt in a lot of the "interior" things as well. Watch those sausages and hams though - natural and salty.

Trader Joes is just about the only grocery store I trust the interior of. I just wish they had a store in Rhode Island (<---- HINT HINT HINT). Even Whole Foods seems a bit dodgy on this issue.

Reacting to high blood sugar
I'm sorry, but I can't really say much here because I don't experience this problem. I know diabetics use an insulin injection if their glucose is really high, but I don't know if there are any other things that can be done. I'd think exercise might help as it would use calories, but the body is so strange it probably does something to negate that.

Reacting to low blood sugar
I mentioned before how problematic this one is, so it has to be split into two phases. In the first phases we address the immediate problem by consuming a simple carb. Candy; orange juice; just about anything on that list above will do the job, although alcohol is probably an extremely bad idea given the circumstances. The second phases is to maintain that state, so we add some staying power with a complex carb or protein. Peanut butter on a cracker works great. Just about any protein bar will work. Basically, get a decent snack or meal in you as soon as possible. Your going to feel like crap anyway, now that your brain is back to working, so eating a meal is a good idea to get you feeling better. Don't delay. Your first phase bought you 30 minutes, tops.

Having more simple carbs for the second phase would be very bad, especially for the hypoglycemic folks because it'll trigger another insulin release and we'll have to start over, and if the release is large enough it could cause us to use a larger first phase which will also trigger more insulin, etc., etc., etc.. It isn't pretty. To avoid this use a small first phase. Just one dixie cup of OJ, or one piece of candy, or one bite of a candy bar.

If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in the downward spiral you need to restabalize your blood sugar by either "weathering" the last insulin spike or trying an extended first phase using very small portions. That means one sip of OJ once a minute until there is no more left. Then move to phase two, count yourself as lucky if you don't have a migraine, and move on.

The problem with all of this is the complexity of these reactions. When a person has low blood sugar they are literally not able to do much beyond basic tasks, if even. Familiarizing yourself with them is very important, so that they're basically an instinct. Better - follow the instinct you already have. When we have a thought of food that is usually our body saying the blood sugar is dropping and it's time for a meal. It's an early warning - don't ignore it. Either go have the meal or have something on hand as a small but fast acting snack that can get you to that meal (1 part chocolate chips to 3 parts nuts works great). That way you're never dealing with these situations with a compromised mind. As a very last resort I'll move to sips of a soda but that's such a toss up I can never make it last very long.

If you've made it this far you are motivated. Let's talk about why. The body has a protection system built in for low blood sugar. When their sugar levels drop too low the body releases a bunch of hormones that signal the liver to fix the situation by coming up with some sugar. Unfortunately the hormones are the same ones used during the fight or flight response, and stick around in the blood for a week or so, so the whole experience can ruin your week. The only way to avoid this is to avoid the situation entirely.

I hope this has helped someone. Please run these things by your doc if you are actually thinking about using them. As I said above, I'm not a doctor so you'd be far better off listening to them.

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