Why Manage Blood Sugar Levels
You dont need to be diabetic or pre-diabetic for managing blood sugar to be important. Keeping blood sugar levels well-regulated within a normal range can improve energy and mood, prevent the development of diseases like diabetes, and help prevent serious health issues like heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease.1 Maintaining blood sugar levels in the normal range can also help you manage your weight, burn fat, and just feel better.
Makes sense, right? Yet an estimated 100+ million people in the U.S. alone experience health issues due to imbalanced blood sugar. Whats worse, 80% of those people dont even know it, and the medical costs associated with those issues, along with lost productivity, add up to over $250 billion per year. This is obviously a very important issue to get under controlboth on the individual and society levels.
Oatmeal For Filling Fiber
Oatmeal contains beta-glucan, a heart-healthy soluble fiber, says the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This makes it a great food to prevent blood sugar spikes, Smithson says. The beta-glucan in oatmeal has also been shown to improve blood sugar control and increase feelings of satiety, according to the results of a controlled clinical trial published in the February 2021 Journal of Functional Foods involving patients with type 2 diabetes. Of course, not all oatmeal is created equal, so opt for a steel-cut or old-fashioned variety, Acharya says. Instant oatmeal can be loaded with sugar.
One-half cup of dry oats contains 150 calories, 27 g of carbs, 5 g of protein, and 2.5 g of fat, according to the USDA. That carb count may sound high, but keep in mind that oatmeal is a complex carb, which means it’s digested more slowly by the body and supplies a steadier release of sugar to the bloodstream, according to the American Heart Association. Each serving also contains a GL of 13, per Oregon State University.
Just remember that oatmeal is a carbohydrate, so you’ll need to practice proper portion control. A standard portion is ½ cup of cooked oatmeal. Enjoy it for breakfast, add it to a smoothie, or use it to make homemade granola bars, Acharya says.
Make Sure To Eat Fiber At Meals And Snacks
When you eat refined white flour, such as pizza crusts, pasta, or crackers, your body is taking in carbs and sugars only and will experience more significant spikes in blood sugar, as there’s no fiber to keep levels stable or to slow digestion.
“Focus on fiber-rich foods to not only manage a post-meal rise in blood sugar but also to assist with gut health as well,” Harris-Pincus says.
Indeed, eating fiber-rich and blood sugar-friendly foods will promote your body’s gut-healthy bacteria, which can further help to balance blood sugar, while keeping your digestive system regular. High-fiber foods include fruits with skin, vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, and whole grains, as well as other fortified cereals.
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What Is The Glycemic Index
The glycemic index is a number given to foods to indicate how fast they will affect the glucose level in your blood . Dr. David Jenkins developed the glycemic index at the University of Toronto in 1981.5 Dr. Jenkins was conducting research on how people with Type 1 diabetes can control blood sugar, and that led him to understanding more about the role of carbohydrates in blood glucose levels. When you eat, your body converts the food to energy for the body, and one of those conversions is to provide sugar to the body. Foods that convert to sugar more slowly provide a more continuous source of energy, without the spikes in blood sugar that can lead to a crash, causing low energy and lethargy. The list below is incomplete, but it can help you start thinking about foods that that provide slow and steady energy to the body. Harvard has a longer list of foods and their glycemic index at this link2.
Best Foods To Lower Your Blood Sugar
Eating healthy isnt just about cutting bad foods out of our diets its also about adding in nutritious foods that will help us reach our health and wellness goals.
If you are looking to lower your blood sugar levels, then you may be wondering what the best foods are to eat that are low on the glycemic index, that wont spike your blood sugars, and that will provide you with nutrients to support a healthy body.
Read on to discover the top 15 foods to help you keep your blood sugar levels controlled.
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Food Items That May Help To Control Blood Sugar
When your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, carbohydrates such as cereals, pasta, fruits, milk, dessert and bread are usually responsible. When one is diabetic, a meal plan is very important because it guides you on what kind of foods to eat. It should be good enough to fit in your eating habits and also your schedule. A good meal plan should include:
- Glycemic index
- Carb counting
- Plate method
Foods with low glycemic index values are better choices for stabilizing blood sugar than foods with high glycemic index values. The glycemic index basically depends on the physiological ability of dietary carbohydrates to lower or increase the level of blood sugar in reference to the type of food consumed by the diabetic patient. Relatively high glycemic index foods have ratings above 50, and often between 75-100. Check out the Glycemic Index Food Chart to find out the glycemic index values of foods that you can include in your Diabetes Diet Plan!
The purpose of a good meal plan is to help keep your weight on track, improve your cholesterol level, blood sugars and also blood pressure. According to past research & health educators from the American Diabetes Association , a healthy diet along with a healthy lifestyle of exercising to maintain a healthy weight can help to reduce diabetes type 2. You can check healthy, mouth-watering recipes for diabetesthat can help you lower your blood sugar levels, without comprising on taste and variety!
Final Tips To Lower Blood Sugar Levels
While diet is important to manage blood sugar levels, so is overall lifestyle. Adequate sleep, enough water intake, and getting movement each day are all important factors that can promote lower blood sugar levels around the clock. Some people find that eating several times a day works better for them while others find they do best with three larger meals throughout the day. Test out both to see which works for you, and listen to your body. Prioritize eating real foods with a balanced intake of protein, fiber, and healthy fats throughout the day for overall healthier blood sugar levels as much as possible.
Other foods worth mentioning for lower blood sugar levels are coconut butter, dark chocolate, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, other nuts and seeds, most all vegetables, greens, fiber-rich fruits like berries and apples, and even black coffee. Remember, theres no need to deprive yourself when taking care of your body but choosing high-quality, real foods is key.
For more information, check out these tips so you can be on your way to better blood sugar levels in no time!
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How To Lower Your Blood Sugar Naturally
Nearly 10% of the U.S. population has diabetes, and globally rates are expected to double by 2030. Significant evidence shows you can lower your blood sugar quickly, and even reverse diabetes by adopting a healthy lifestyle:
- In the United Kingdom, researchers successfully lowered blood sugar and reverse diabetes by implementing a combination of a lifestyle change and weight loss.
- In urban locations in Africa, scientists have found educational programs help prediabetic adults alter their lifestyle to effectively lower blood sugar levels.
- The most extensive study was completed in the United States and was called the Diabetes Prevention Program Randomized Trail. The study observed 3,234 men and women with pre-diabetes over a three-year period. The researchers found a healthy lifestyle was more effective than medication in preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes. One third of the adults took a placebo, another took metformin , while the final third of the adults adopted lifestyle changes that were similar to the Pritikin Program . Adults who adopted a lifestyle change were twice as likely to reduce the progression of their pre-diabetes into type 2 diabetes than the control group.
Adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as the Pritikin lifestyle, is twice as effective as medication in preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Healthy Ways To Lower Your Blood Sugar
Whether you have diabetes or prediabetesor just generally suffer ill effects from crazy blood sugar swingsyou want to know what really works to control your blood sugar levels. It can make all the difference in living well and staying off the blood sugar roller coaster that can drag down your mood and energy and skew your hunger levels. Here are a dozen tips that will help your blood sugar and your overall health.
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Get Trendy With Apple Cider Vinegar
If you do a quick Google search, youll see that apple cider vinegar is good for pretty much everything. You can use it to tone your skin, clean your pipes, and possibly lower your blood sugar!
A clinical review found that taking ACV daily could reduce blood glucose levels. Unfortunately, most of the trials were very small and some had mixed results.
But since youve probably got it in your house anyway, try taking a swig or two before meals, testing yourself, and seeing if a little ACV shot works for you .
Tips For Healthy Eating With Diabetes
There are different types of diabetes, and no two people with diabetes are the same. So there isnt a one-size-fits-all ‘diabetes diet’ for everyone with diabetes. But weve come up with tips that you can use to help you make healthier food choices.
These healthy eating tips are general and can help you manage your blood glucose , blood pressure and cholesterol levels. They can also help you manage your weight and reduce the risk of diabetes complications, such as heart problems and strokes, and other health conditions including certain types of cancers.
Making healthier food choices is important to manage your diabetes and to reduce your risk of diabetes complications. We know that not everyone agrees on what is the best diet.
This is why weve reviewed all the evidence to put these tips together. Weve focused on specific foods, to make it easier for you to put these tips into practice and to complement whatever diet you decide to follow.
– Douglas Twenefour, Specialist Dietitian and Deputy Head of Care
We’ve based our tips on research involving people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. If you have a different type of diabetes, like gestational, cystic fibrosis-related diabetes or MODY, some of these tips are relevant to you. Its important, whatever kind of diabetes you have, to see your dietitian for specific advice.
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Bump Up Your Exercise Intensity
Exercise is a great way to boost your body’s ability to manage blood sugar, but making sure it’s a heart-pumping workout will help even more. Performing brief spurts of high-intensity exercise improved blood glucose levels in diabetics and healthy people for one to three days, per a 2013 review of research. Muscles soak up glucose during exercise to burn for energy, and the higher-intensity movements may aid this process even more.
Start With These Tips To Lower Blood Sugar Levels
To help you get started on filling your plate with more blood sugar friendly foods that will help lower your blood sugar, start by removing refined sugar, refined grains, and most processed foods from your diet. Processed foods all contain chemicals and refined ingredients that our bodies dont recognize as real nutrients, so our cells never really get what they need and we feel hungry all the time as a result. This also leads to blood sugar swings and spikes that cause insulin to work less efficiently.
What helps insulin work best so that blood sugar stays in a stable place are foods that pack dense amounts of nutrition and contain amino acids , fiber , and healthy fats from real food.
Lets check out some foods that can help lower blood sugar levels by offering us these nutritional benefits, shall we?
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These 12 Foods Help Lower Blood Sugar Naturally
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Every time you eat, your digestive system goes on full alert to break down the food and transport the nutrients where theyre needed, so everything works properly, and you stay healthy. What you eat, however, can have a big impact on what happens inside your body afterward. A great example is what happens to your blood sugar levels, and along those lines, certain foods can cause blood sugar levels to quickly skyrocket. Other foods help lower blood sugar levels. And how you orchestrate this fantastic dance can lead to more consistent, robust energy and to greater health. Or not
Kale For A Variety Of Vitamins And Minerals
Of all the leafy greens you could enjoy on a diabetes diet, kale is the superstar, Smithson says. The ADA names it a superfood, because it offers a slew of essential nutrients, including vitamins A, C, E, and K, iron, calcium, and potassium.
Plus, its low in calories and carbs. One cup of raw kale contains about 9 calories, 1.1 g of carbs, and less than 1 g of protein and fat, according to the USDA. The GL is very low, around 1 or 2.
Smithson adds that kale contains bile acid sequestrants. These can lower LDL cholesterol, as shown by research published June 2017 in Preventive Nutrition and Food Science. Smithson suggests tossing kale into a salad, steaming it, or baking it into chips.
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Dress Your Meals Withextra Virgin Olive Oil
Extra-virgin olive oil can be a powerful addition to meals. Here’s why:
- Helps reduce the effect of eating high-glycemic foods: A 2016 study found that the addition of extra-virgin olive oil to a high-glycemic meal “blunts” the blood glucose response after the meal for people with Type 1 diabetes, helping to stabilize blood sugars and prevent fluctuations.
- Reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes: A 2017 review of studies found that eating olive oil may help manage and prevent Type 2 diabetes.
Note: The 2017 review noted that following the Mediterranean diet which advocates for the consumption of olive oil as the primary dietary fat was especially helpful at reducing the risk of diabetes.
Olive oil is also rich in healthy fats and antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and risk of heart disease.
Work In Fermented Foods
A 2018 review of animal and human studies concluded that fermented foods such as kimchi, kefir, black garlic, and fermented soybeans may have favorable effects on people with diabetes.
In particular, scientists pointed out that these foods have the potential to help prevent complications associated with diabetes, such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease, by increasing antioxidant intake and fighting inflammation.
Probiotic foods are known for containing bacteria that support a healthy gut microbiome. Unbalanced gut microbiomes have been linked to impaired blood glucose control and the development of Type 2 diabetes.
In fact, scientists are still studying the effects that particular bacteria in the gut may have on the development and treatment of diabetes.
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Foods That Help Lower Blood Sugar Quickly
Foods That Help Lower Blood Sugar Quickly. Both kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble, help to drastically reduce the breakdown of carbs into sugar and promote fullness. Some of the foods that help keep your blood sugar levels in the healthy range include: What foods will lower blood sugar quickly? Just like fiber, fat, and protein to an even larger extent, help slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream.
Steps to take in an emergency. Protein and fat both help buffer your bodys blood sugar response after eating and encourage stable blood sugars. 13 foods to help lower blood sugar 1.
Protein and fat both help buffer your bodys blood sugar response after eating and encourage stable blood sugars. They are nutrient rich and contain helpful things like fiber and healthy fats. Some of the foods that help keep your blood sugar levels in the healthy range include:
Eggs work to lower blood sugar levels very well because they are generally very easy to digest so that nutrients reach the cells quickly and help lower blood sugar levels as a result. But the foods you eat and how active you are make a difference, too. They lower blood sugar by supporting your bodys ability to break down starchy foods and sugar.
Balance carbs with protein and healthy fats. Studies have found that eating nuts can have beneficial effects on blood sugar and insulin levels. Generally, foods and drinks that the body absorbs slowly are best because they do not cause.
Easy Ways To Lower Blood Sugar Levels Naturally
Natural remedies can help reduce blood sugar levels. However, medical treatment may also be required if blood sugar levels remain consistently high. Hence, you must consult a doctor.
Some natural ways to control blood sugar levels include:
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