If you eat everything at night…it is likely due to what you are doing during the day.

NO …you argue! I eat well, I eat light. I behave all day.

Because I love you I am going to help you see this a little clearer: It’s probably due to your blood sugar! Even a person who eats “healthy” food can have unbalanced blood sugar.

 

Spoiler Alert – here are the answers:

They are:

• Stop eating and drinking things that are mostly sugar;
• Don’t eat too many carbohydrates;
• Choose “low glycemic” starches;
• Eat more fibre;
• Eat your protein and fibrous vegetables, first;
• Fruit is ok, especially dark berries;
• Try these blood-sugar balancing flavourings (vinegar & cinnamon);
• Get enough good quality sleep;
• Exercise;
• Reduce your stress;

 

So now where I talk a lot…

1 – Stop eating and drinking things that are mostly sugar

First things first. If a food or drink is mostly sugar, please try to reduce, or even cut it out of your diet. Clearly.

I’m talking sweetened beverages (e.g. pop, juice, energy drinks, candy, etc.), most desserts. Of course.

However, many breakfasts, and even seemingly-healthy choices like some granola bars often have a lot of sugar.

ALERT:: The green smoothies at Starbucks can have up to 25 GRAMS of sugar.

Significantly reducing these will give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to better blood sugar levels. That’s why it’s my number one recommendation.

 

2 – Don’t eat too many carbohydrates

Hear me out. I’m not anti-carb. But everyone has a different tolerance, and even good carbs can be overdone.

Your body digests starches by breaking them down into sugar. By reducing the amount of sugars and starches (carbohydrates) you eat, you can reduce that blood sugar spike that happens right after you eat. This has been shown in many studies.

It’s been said that one of the strongest predictors of blood sugar response is the total amount of carbohydrates in a meal.

Reducing your overall carbohydrate intake can help to reduce your blood sugar levels. If you are really hungry, try adding some healthy fats.

 

3 – Choose “low glycemic” starches

Look! You still get carbs. Just eat more above-ground plants, and combine them with fat.

Low glycemic foods include ones that are higher in fibre, fat and protein. Examples are meat, seafood, eggs, legumes, sweet potatoes, and most fruit and non-starchy vegetables.

If you’ve already cut out a lot of sugary foods and want to reduce your starch intake, then start by ditching the “high glycemic” (i.e. ones that raise your blood sugar too high) starches.

As you can imagine, researchers have measured how fast and how high blood sugar increases with different foods. Foods that are “high glycemic” quickly raise blood sugar quite high. “Low glycemic” foods raise blood slower and to a smaller extent.

This “glycemic effect” is the result of the components in the food itself.

Things like the amount of carbohydrate, the type of carbohydrate (i.e. sugar vs starch), and what other nutrients are in the food (i.e. protein, fibre, etc.) as well.

The fibre, fat and protein in a food slows down the digestion and absorption of the carbohydrates, so the blood sugar rise slows down too. This results in a lower “glycemic effect.” (So, buttering toast can be a GOOD idea!)

High glycemic foods (i.e. ones to avoid) include sugary foods, as well as starchy foods like white bread, many pastas, and rice.

NOTE: Eating a low glycemic food along with a high glycemic food will help to slow down the blood sugar rise from the higher glycemic food. It’s not just the single food that matters, but the rest of the meal also affects your blood sugar.

Which leads us to…

 

4 – Eat more fibre

Yes, this is the best carb of all! You’ve heard that “fibre makes you regular,” right? It’s so healthy. Most people don’t eat nearly enough. The recommended daily intake of fibre for adults is 21 g – 38 g per day.

This nutrient is not just for “regularity” and gut health, but also for blood sugar balance too. Those are 3 VERY good reasons to get fibre.

It works by mixing with the carbohydrates in your meal, and slowing down the absorption of the sugars from those carbohydrates.

Some of the highest fibre foods include cocoa powder, flaxseeds, & legumes.

If you react to fibre, go slow, and keep it soft. Feel free to add a spoon of cocoa powder to your smoothie, add soaked flaxseeds or cooked apples on your cereal, and/or add some legumes to your soup or salad.

 

5 – Do eat enough, especially your protein and fibrous vegetables, and eat them first

Since blood sugar is affected by the amount of carbohydrates you eat, studies have also looked at the order in which you eat different foods.

A few small studies looked at adults with type 2 diabetes. They all had the same meal, but some were asked to eat their protein and fibrous (i.e. non-starchy) vegetables first; while others ate their carbohydrates first.

They found that people who ate the protein and vegetables first had better blood sugar control. One of the studies also showed lower levels of post-meal insulin when the carbohydrates were eaten last.

Another study found these blood sugar benefits to be true even in people without type 2 diabetes.

It’s thought that when we eat carbohydrates first, we start digesting them right away. But, if we eat them after our protein and fibrous vegetables, they have a chance to mix in with the rest of the food in your stomach. This can slow down their absorption, which slows down how fast and high our blood sugar gets after we eat.

The effects of changing food order hasn’t been tested in many big studies, but it is supported by metabolic researchers and seems to be a simple and safe habit to get into to help our bodies better regulate blood sugar levels.

Try to eat your protein and fibrous vegetables first, and starches last.

 

6 – Fruit is ok, especially dark berries

Unless your doctor or health practitioner has said otherwise, or you have an intolerance to them, fruit and the fruit sugar “fructose” are generally ok. Fructose has a low glycemic index.

Having fructose instead of glucose (regular sugar) can reduce a measure of the average levels of blood sugar over the past two to three months (e.g. HbA1c – a blood test for blood sugar control).

A diet high in fruits and vegetables is great for your health. They contain phytochemicals (phyto=plant), vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Eating whole (not processed or juiced) fruits can help with blood sugar balance. Berries are particularly good, as they contain a lot of fibre and not a lot of sugar. Not to mention that they’re delicious!

Berries, especially dark berries, contain pigments known as “anthocyanins.” These dark-coloured pigments have lots of health benefits including helping sugar metabolism in people with insulin resistance. They can also improve ability to think, and their antioxidant effects are linked to reduced DNA damage.

You can get enough anthocyanins from a regular serving of dark berries, so give them a try.

 

7 – Try these blood-sugar balancing flavourings (vinegar & cinnamon)

Try having two tablespoons of vinegar shortly before or with a meal that contains sugars or starches.

Why? Because a recent analysis of several studies (a meta-analysis) showed that the vinegar can lower the blood sugar by up to 60% and the insulin by up to 130% compared to the same meal without vinegar. This worked for insulin-resistant people. Even healthy people had a significant benefit.

Cinnamon can help to lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity. This effect can happen with even less than one teaspoon per day.

It’s thought that cinnamon works by slowing the emptying of the stomach. Slower emptying means slower absorption and slower blood sugar rise after a meal. Cinnamon also contains antioxidant polyphenols (plant chemicals) that may improve insulin sensitivity. If you like it, eat it.

 

8 – Get enough good quality sleep

Our bodies are wired to work along the sun’s schedule. The objective is to wake up when the sun comes up, and get tired when it goes down. Not enough sleep can affect many of our body’s systems, including negatively affecting our blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity. It can also increase appetite and promote weight gain.

Even one or two nights of poor sleep can affect our blood sugar levels.

Regularly getting enough good quality sleep is a great step toward helping our bodies manage blood sugar.

 

9 – Pump iron / exercise

Remember how insulin tells your muscle cells to pull some sugar out of your blood to store for later? Guess what it’s storing it for?

Exercise!

By exercising and burning that stored sugar, you not only improve your blood sugar levels, and your physical and mental health in many ways, but also can reduce insulin resistance. Win-win-win.

This means your muscle cells, especially when they’re moving, absorb and burn more sugar from the blood. This goes for both medium- and high-intensity exercise.

 

10 – Reduce your stress

Ok, so basically, functional practitioners go to school for 4 years to learn that every ailment is due to stress! LOL. Let’s talk about the blood sugar effect of stress hormones like cortisol.

Things like not eating for a few hours, or being under stress releases sugar stored in the liver and muscles and delivers them back to the blood!

The reason stress hormones release stored sugar is to prepare for the “fight or flight” reaction. Your body becomes physically ready to fight or run. And to do this, you need fuel in your blood, i.e. sugar.

How can you reduce stress? Relaxation techniques like deep BELLY breathing, meditation, and yoga can help to reduce stress and lower blood sugar levels.

 

Summary

If you eat yourself silly at night, “against your will” your blood sugar is not steady.

Either you starved yourself from total calories, eat too many starches, or get inadequate fibre, protein and fat, in the day.

There are some nutrition and lifestyle upgrades you can make for better health, including eating more fibre, protein, fat and sleeping better and exercising, in order to balance your blood sugar.

xox

Dana