How To Keep Blood Sugar Normal?

Does fatigue strike right after a meal? Will it start to weaken and tremble after a few hours? How can blood sugar be kept steady and with it avoid many unpleasant sensations?

Everyday life breaks down when your blood sugar is steady - but what to do when swinging your blood sugar and sawing it up and down brings with it many symptoms.

In this way, nutritionist Reijo Laatikainen answers 9 questions about blood sugar and at the same time advises to keep blood sugar constant. He published the book Blood Sugar Take Over This Fall - Getting Rid of Diabetes this fall.

1. Why do you always start to get tired after a meal?

After a meal, your blood sugar may rise very high for a while. High blood sugar may not be felt anywhere, but for some, it causes a great deal of fatigue.

Especially if you eat a high-carbohydrate meal, such as a large serving of potatoes, pasta, or rice, your blood sugar will skyrocket.

When your blood sugar rises quickly, you will sometimes come down at a rapid pace. Some may experience unpleasant symptoms such as tremors, weakness, and palpitations about 2 to 3 hours after a meal.

2. What is reactive hypoglycemia?

Reactive hypoglycemia refers to just such a drop in blood sugar a few hours after a carbohydrate meal. It’s because of the meal you eat - not because you have diabetes.

Low blood sugar symptoms without diabetes are not very common, but some of them suffer.

3. So blood sugar can fluctuate even if you don’t have diabetes?

Yes. After all, blood sugar fluctuates after a meal, allowing it to rise 50 percent or even 100 percent higher.

After a meal, your blood sugar may rise for a while.

For many healthy people, high and low blood sugar may not cause any symptoms. But then there are those who are more sensitive to fluctuations by nature or because their sugar metabolism is declining.

4. Does aging increase blood sugar fluctuations?

Yes. As you age, your blood sugar levels tend to increase as your sugar metabolism declines. Aging can also increase difficulty sleeping, which in turn increases fatigue. The feeling of fatigue caused by high blood sugar after a meal is clearly accentuated if you have slept poorly.

Many medicines can also affect your blood sugar level.

5. What should I eat to keep my blood sugar steady?

If your blood sugar fluctuates easily, it is a good idea to keep the dose sizes reasonable and the number of carbohydrates moderate.

The ideal meal for a sensitive person is 20-30 grams of high-fiber carbohydrates, or dark pasta or rice. The rest of the carbohydrates should be taken from low-carbohydrate and high-fiber foods such as roots, vegetables, and berries, which in themselves slow down the rise in blood sugar caused by a carbohydrate dose.

It’s a good idea to add a tablespoon of olive oil or nuts to your meal as they will further slow down the rise in blood sugar.

A protein such as chicken, fish, meat, or tofu should be a palm-sized portion of your palm.

6. Should I eat every 3-4 hours?

A meal every 3-4 hours is good if you suffer from blood sugar fluctuations. But if your blood sugar fluctuations have never bothered you, there may well be even 6-7 hours between meals. However, a long meal interval can lead to overeating.

Usually, the feeling of hunger is due to something other than low blood sugar. Habit, for example, has a big impact on hunger: as lunch approaches, so does the need to eat, regardless of blood sugar.

It is not worth making any trolls about low blood sugar. A budding feeling of hunger does not mean there is low blood sugar. A small feeling of hunger every now and then is not a bad thing.

7. Does a ketogenic diet help smooth out blood sugar fluctuations?

A ketogenic diet, which is very low in carbohydrates, effectively balances the peaks and dips in blood sugar. It is worth trying if the other means mentioned above do not help.

It is imperative to follow a ketogenic diet to ensure that you are getting enough fiber and healthy fats.

8. Which one should you be more concerned about - too low or too high blood sugar?

Leaving aside the small group that suffers from reactive hypoglycemia, it is definitely more important to make sure that your blood sugar does not rise too high.

As many as 30 percent of Westerners have pre-diabetes. High blood sugar predisposes us to cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it is also important to make sure that there are no tired post-meal blood sugar spikes.

9. What other than nutrition affects blood sugar levels?

Prolonged sleep difficulties, such as sleep apnea, impair the regulation of blood sugar by reducing the effect of insulin in the body. This raises blood sugar levels. So sleep problems should be treated for this reason as well.

Immobility, such as bed rest, can also reduce the effect of insulin and raise blood sugar. Exercise can have the opposite effect. Even a healthy person's blood sugar can drop too much during intense exercise.

The surprising information is that coffee drunk immediately after a meal would seem to raise blood sugar a bit. So it may be better to drink coffee only an hour or two after a meal.

On the other hand, coffee invigorates. If it can be used to combat meal fatigue, a cup of coffee for dessert may still be in place.