How Do I Keep My Blood Sugar Stable to Have Balanced Hormones?

by Angie

 

The words “blood sugar” is now a big thing! Right?

We all heard about it. You think diabetes, diabetes medications, and restrictive eating or insulin injections?

Simply blood sugar is the measure of the amount of sugar in your blood. Your body needs the right balance of sugar in your blood to fuel your brain and muscles.

The thing is, it fluctuates. A lot and often.

Fluctuation of blood sugar is the natural balance between things that increase it; and things that decrease it. Whenever you eat something with starches (“carbs”), the sugar gets digested and absorbed into your blood. Carbs, when ingested, are being broken down into simple sugars, and your body keeps blood sugar levels stable by secreting insulin. Insulin is the hormone, which removes excess sugar from your bloodstream and moves it into your muscle cells and other tissues for energy.

Why keep my blood sugar stable?

Your body is designed to keep your blood sugar at the optimal level. It needs to be high enough, so you’re not feeling fatigued or irritable. It needs to be low enough that your body doesn’t have a hard time to remove excess sugar from the blood.

When your blood sugar is too low, and you are feeling hungry, shaky, sweaty and possibly have heart palpitations you are suffering from “hypoglycemia.”

When blood sugar is too high, and you are feeling thirsty, have trouble concentrating, have blurred vision, peeing frequently and have a headache you are suffering from “hyperglycemia.”

When you are experiencing prolonged periods of elevated blood sugar levels (chronic hyperglycemia), it can lead to “insulin resistance.” That is not a good thing.

Insulin resistance is when your cells have excess insulin that they don’t know what to do with it, and they start ignoring (resisting) it. This process keeps your blood sugar levels too high, and it can eventually lead to diabetes.

Insulin is also connected to other hormones in your body, including progesterone and estrogen.

High insulin spikes after a meal high in carbs and sugar can lead to lower levels of an important protein known as sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). Normal levels of SHBG are essential because SHBG role is to bind excess testosterone and estrogen in the blood. When SHBG is low, these hormone levels will increase. Insulin is also known for increasing the production of testosterone, which then will be converted into more estrogen by fat tissue in the belly.

When you have too much estrogen in our body, you become estrogen dominant. Our ratio of estrogen to progesterone is disturbed and you can experience all kind of symptoms of hormonal imbalance such as anxiety, weight gain, hair loss, insomnia, anger, irritability and more.

So what can you do to optimize your lifestyle and diet to keep your blood sugar stable?

One of the easiest ways to balance your blood sugar is to reduce the number of refined starches and sugars you eat. To do this, you can eliminate bread and pasta made from white flour, eliminate sweet drinks form your diet, use different sugar substitutes such as maple syrup, coconut sugar, stevia or molasses, eat a piece of dark chocolate instead of dessert.

Eating more protein and fat with your meals is crucial because they will help slow down the absorption of sugar from your bloodstream. Nuts and seeds are great – you can add them to your dessert or oatmeal in the morning. You can make a dessert with avocado like chocolate avocado pudding. It is super easy!

Fiber also slows down the amount of sugar absorbed from your meal, and it reduces the “spike” in your blood sugar level. You will find fiber in plant-based foods (as long as they are eaten in their natural state, processing foods removed fiber) such as whole fruits and vegetables.

Using cinnamon with your dessert is great! Cinnamon helps cells increase insulin sensitivity. Not to mention it’s a delicious spice that you can use in place of sugar.

Studies have been shown that exercise helps to improve insulin sensitivity – your cells don’t ignore insulin’s call to get excess sugar out of the blood. Also during the exercise, muscles are using up that sugar they absorbed from your blood.

One of the most significant problems nowadays is stress, which impacts your blood sugar levels. Stress hormone cortisol can increase your blood sugar levels. Sugar fuels the “fight or flight” stress response. You need sugar in your brain to “fight” or “flee.” During body stress response signals are sent to release stored forms of sugar back into the bloodstream, increasing blood sugar levels. Best practices for reducing and managing stress are meditation, yoga, deep berating, spending time in nature, baths and more.

Sleep is super important too. You need to get enough quality sleep, otherwise you tend to release stress hormones, have a higher appetite, and even get sugar cravings. Sleep is often overlooked factor when it comes to keeping your blood sugar stable.

Conclusion

Your body is designed to keep your blood sugar stable all day every day. The body is equipped with mechanisms in place to do this, but those mechanisms can get resistant. Long-term blood sugar issues can be a cause of many diseases.

There are many lifestyles and nutrition approaches you can take to help keep your blood sugar stable. Minimizing excessive carbs, and eating more fiber, exercising, reducing stress, and improving sleep are all key to having stable blood sugar (and overall good health).

 

 

Recipe (blood sugar balancing): Paleo Pancakes

Serves 2

1 scoop plant-based protein powder

¼ cup egg whites

1/2 banana, mashed

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon flax seed

1 tablespoon raw honey or maple syrup, optional

a cooking spray made with olive or coconut oil

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Pour about ¼ cup of batter into a pan that has been sprayed with olive oil or coconut oil cooking spray and heat on medium. Cook one side until you see the little bubbles, just like cooking any pancake. Flip over carefully, and cook on the other side until the middle is done. Peek inside with a fork to check the middle.

Blueberry Pancakes: Add a handful of fresh blueberries after the above ingredients are mixed. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Raspberry Pancakes: Top with raspberries and powdered stevia. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Enjoy your protein pancakes!

Felling sluggish after the holidays? Check out my THRIVING HORMONES DETOX HERE!

 

 

In Health

Angie

 

References:

 

https://authoritynutrition.com/15-ways-to-lower-blood-sugar/

 

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/research-review-blood-sugar

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