OK, I’m going to commit heresy in the eyes of the nutritional purists who treat diet like a religion, with strict rules of what you can and cannot eat.
Most so-called experts on hypoglycemia will tell you to completely avoid sugar and everything containing sugar – even to read labels for the tiniest trace of sugar that a food might contain. Well, how does that make you feel, when you consider the prospect of living the rest of your life never being able to eat the tinest amount of any sweet food?
Just so you don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say, I want to stress that the main cause of hypoglycemia is too much sugar, caffeine and/or alcohol. (Another major cause is regular use of many prescription drugs but I’ll cover that in a future blog post.)
However, I have proven for myself over many years of trial and error that it’s fine to eat SMALL amounts of sugar… as long as you eat it as part of a balanced meal.
If you snack on cookies at random all day long, you are going to have blood sugar problems, for sure. But if you eat a balanced meal of, say, meat, potatoes (with butter) and vegetables, then have a cookie for dessert, you will not upset your blood sugar at all. Note, I said one cookie (maybe two if they are small :-). I didn’t say 10 cookies or a whole packet.
The thing is, most people tend to think of diet in terms of black and white. There are “good” foods and there are “bad” foods. Most experts will tell you sugar (and various other foods) are “bad” if you have hypoglycemia and you should avoid them totally. The “good” foods you can apparently eat in unlimited amounts.
Well, I believe there are no “good” or “bad” foods. As long as we are talking about natural foods (not synthetic foods like margarine and low-fat spreads which I absolutely don’t recommend) but if we look at natural foods, then they are all good as long as you eat them in balance and moderation.
One cookie at the end of a meal. One cup of coffee (likewise with a meal) or even, dare I say it, one glass of beer or wine… is not going to do you too much harm. But two or three (or more) of any of those things at once is going to do you a lot of harm. So, it’s not the food or drink itself that’s “bad”. It’s the person who’s eating or drinking too much of it!
I’m going to say more about this in future posts. And I’m also going to explain in my next post why I don’t recommend “diet plans” for people with hypoglycemia (they are just another form of diet “religion” in my opinion. They’ll just make you miserable.)
If you can’t wait for my next post you can read everything in my new ebook – “Revealed: The Hidden Truth About Hypoglycemia“.
I have recently tried to give up sugar and go no carb or very low carb like on Mark’s Daily Apple.com. After about three days of this I start getting severe anxiety and all my normal symptoms of hypoglcemia. I have spoke with many of the low carb expert and they say that lob carb is safe and even veryy healthy. After a bit of research I cam acrooss the following on a web site for low carb dieting: As you begin a ketogenic diet and get in the process of retraining your body to burn stored fat as fuel, your body has to adjust to the new lower level of carb intake. But it does this slowly.
During the adjustment phase, your pancreas is still secreting enough insulin for the “old” carb intake level. Because insulin levels are still high, the body is dependent on carbs for fuel, since stored fat can’t be accessed.
Your body hums along with less carb intake for a couple of days because it can tap into the stored carb (glycogen) in your liver and muscles. But eventually, the glycogen runs out, more insulin is secreted than actually needed, and a couple of hours later, you have a severe episode of reactive hypoglycemia.
Your body perceives that your blood glucose is too low, and starts evasive tactics to get that sugar from somewhere. It pumps out adrenalin to tell the liver to break down some protein into glucose FAST and dump it in the blood stream.
The adrenalin causes the symptoms that are associated with reactive hypoglycemia:
•heart palpitations or fibrillation
•dizziness
•light-headedness
•sweating
•headaches
•nervousness
•irritability
•shaking and tremors
•flushing
•craving for sweets
•intense hunger
•nausea, vomiting
•panic attack
•numbness/coldness in the extremities
•fatigue and shakiness for hours afterwards
Generally, drinking or eating something that is high in carbohydrate, like orange juice or candy, relieves the majority of the symptoms after about 15 minutes. There may be some residual fatigue and shakiness for a time afterwards.
This is exactly what is happening. Anyway my question is how the heck( sorry for the out burst) do I deal with hypoglcemia? Most people say low carb but low carb makes me worse.
Thank you,
Gina
interesting blog. will come back