Learn the link between blood sugar and your health and weight
Maintaining consistent blood sugar levels is the missing health link for so many of us. Understanding the connection between blood sugar levels, disease prevention, fat loss, and energy levels is life changing.
When you know the link between food, exercise, and how your body converts food into sugar and energy, you can take steps to prevent fluctuating energy levels and disease and lose extra body fat.
Blood sugar is a primary energy source responsible for delivering nutrients to your muscles, organs, and nervous system.
Your body converts the foods and beverages you consume into blood sugar. Your blood sugar levels are impacted by what you eat and drink. Foods that are high in sugar or fast-acting carbohydrates cause your blood sugar levels to spike, leaving you with a temporary energy high.
This temporary energy high kickstarts the cycle of sugar and carbohydrate cravings, energy dips and peaks leading to health problems and the accumulation of extra body fat. Left unchecked, inconsistent blood sugar levels can put you on the path for hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.
Fluctuating blood sugar levels are preventable and completely within your control. Subtle changes to your lifestyle, food habits, and exercise frequency put a focus on your blood sugar levels, helping you get back to consistent health, energy levels, and the ability to more easily manage your weight and body fat.
The Facts About Blood Sugar
Blood sugar isn’t a topic many of us know or even think about. Unless you have diabetes or have been diagnosed with a blood sugar related health condition, it’s very likely blood sugar is not top-of-mind.
To help you understand the impacts of blood sugar on your whole-body health and energy, we want you to know these key blood sugar facts:
- Blood sugar is often referred to as blood glucose.
- High blood sugar can cause hyperglycemia. Left untreated, hyperglycemia can lead to serious health consequences. Please make sure you know the signs and symptoms of hyperglycemia.
- Low blood sugar can cause hypoglycemia. For people who don’t have diabetes, hypoglycemia can occur when your body cannot maintain stable blood sugar levels. Hypoglycemia can lead to long-term health problems, including seizures, neurological problems that mimic stroke, and a loss of consciousness.
- High blood sugar is attributed to a range of health conditions including heart disease, stroke, kidney, nerve, or eye damage, skin problems, and prediabetes.
- Prediabetes occurs when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
According to the CDC, approximately 88 million American adults (more than 1 in 3) have prediabetes. And 84% of people with prediabetes don’t know they have this serious health condition.
The more you know about blood sugar, energy, body fat, and your health – the better. The American Diabetes Association defines the link between blood sugar, energy and body fat as:
When you eat, your body breaks food down into sugar and sends it into the blood. Insulin then helps move the sugar from the blood into your cells. When sugar enters your cells, it is either used as fuel for energy right away or stored for later use.
When you eat high carbohydrate or sugary foods, your blood sugar levels spike. This spike gives you a short burst of energy followed by a feeling of fatigue or sleepiness. Many of us respond to this fatigue by eating more sugary or high carbohydrate foods – keeping the cycle of energy highs and lows going all-day long.
When you eat too many foods high in carbohydrates, it is difficult for your body to absorb and use this excess sugar. Instead of using this excess sugar for energy, your body converts it to stored body fat.
This stored body fat often accumulates around your waist, putting you at risk for type 2 diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and depression.
Know These 4 Health Benefits of Maintaining Normal Blood Sugar Levels
Maintaining normal blood sugar levels is one of the best actions you can take to get and stay healthy. With normal blood sugar levels, it’s easier for your body to:
- Minimize your risk of disease and illness.
- Efficiently absorb nutrients from food, ensuring your organs and body systems have what they need to keep you healthy.
- Lose stored body fat and maintain a healthy weight, helping you to feel good and minimize your risk of disease related to excess body fat.
- Maintain consistent energy levels, preventing the energy crashes that cause you to crave sugar and carbohydrates.
Blood sugar is something we just don’t think about often enough. The next time you feel like a nap after a big meal or find yourself craving a sugary drink in the morning – this can be a sign you need to get your blood sugar levels under control.
Sign You Need to Pay Attention to Your Blood Sugar Levels
Do not ignore the signs and symptoms of high blood sugar, these can be indicators of serious health problems. If you experience any signs of high blood sugar, please discuss these with your doctor.
Know these 4 mild high blood sugar signs and symptoms:
- Frequent peeing. When you pee, you’re excreting excess sugar from your body. When your blood sugar levels are high, your kidneys become more active, forcing you to pee in efforts to remove excess blood sugar from your body.
- High levels of thirst. Since you’re peeing more often, you can end up dehydrated and constantly thirsty.
- Very low energy. High blood sugar makes it hard for your body to process insulin into energy, making it difficult for you to have the energy supplies you require.
- Increased appetite. To compensate for low energy levels, your body sends hunger signals so it can make more blood sugar and create the energy you need. This hunger triggers a secondary response, tricking your body into converting blood sugar into stored body fat for future energy, making it difficult for you to lose weight.
Please do not ignore these signs and symptoms of moderate to severely high blood sugar. If you or someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately:
- Excessive thirst
- Lightheadedness
- Blurry vision
- Hot, dry, flushed skin
- High heart rate and weak pulse
- Drowsiness, restlessness, or struggling to stay awake
- Stomach pain, vomiting, or lack of appetite
- Deep and rapid breathing
- Very strong, fruity breath
6 Ways to Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels for Life
You’re busy, you’ve got a lot going on, and your stress levels are high. Like most people, you turn to your favorite sugary treat or high carbohydrate snack when times are challenging.
However, this mid-afternoon or late-night snack has deep health impacts. When you eat high carbohydrate foods like cake, potato chips, sweetened coffee drinks, or cookies, this causes a large amount of sugar to enter your bloodstream. This forces an insulin spike and high blood sugar symptoms, starting a dangerous cycle of fatigue, hunger, weight gain, stress, and anxiety.
It is very difficult to recognize this cycle and make the connection between your mind, body, and blood sugar. For so many of us, this is our normal way of being.
But the good news is – you can change this. You have the power to put an end to the sugar cravings, energy crashes, weight gain, and health problems.
These 6 tips can help you take control of your blood sugar, energy levels, weight, and disease prevention:
-
Cut back on the amount of fast-acting carbohydrates you eat and drink.
There are two types of carbohydrates fast- and slow-acting. Fast-acting carbohydrates are foods that give you an instant energy boost. Foods such as soda, white bread, donuts, potatoes, cake, and crackers are all fast-acting carbohydrates.
Slow-acting carbohydrates give you slow and consistent energy, preventing your blood sugar from spiking while ensuring you have energy when you need it. Foods like large flake oats, whole wheat bread, brown rice, quinoa, lentils, most vegetables, and nuts are all examples of slow-acting carbohydrates.
-
Get regular exercise.
Regular exercise trains your body and muscles to use blood sugar for energy and fuel, preventing insulin resistance. For example, people who do a lot of endurance exercise such as long bike rides or runs will often eat a high-carbohydrate snack during their ride or run for a boost of energy. Because they exercise consistently, their body knows what to do with this high dose of sugar, immediately converting it to available energy instead of storing it as fat.
Exercise also helps you relieve stress, giving you a healthier coping mechanism than reaching for the chocolate or high sugar coffee shop drink. If you’re in the middle of a hectic workday or need a break from the kids, try a 30-minute walk for some much needed alone time. A walk does wonders for every aspect of your health and weight loss journey.
-
Make fiber a daily priority.
Like most people, you need more fiber. Fiber is vital to good digestion, preventing constipation, and slowing sugar absorption. When you eat a high fiber diet, your body can regulate your blood sugar levels effectively and make you feel full, preventing overeating.
Try to add high fiber foods like avocados, nuts, lentils, beans, peas, broccoli, berries, pears, large flake oatmeal, cantaloupe, and shrimp to your diet. Your blood sugar levels, waistline, and taste buds will thank you. -
Drink water throughout the day.
When you pee, excess blood sugar is removed from your body. When you’re dehydrated, you stop peeing, this causes a buildup of blood sugar, resulting in blood sugar spikes and energy crashes. This is why it’s easy to get thirst and hunger signals confused – your body thinks it needs more food to normalize blood sugar and energy levels when what you really need to do is drink a couple of large glasses of water. -
Control your stress levels.
Stress eating is normal. The problem with stress eating is we don’t choose celery or a shiny red apple – instead we choose peanut butter cookies or a slice of deep-dish pecan pie. pre-packaged granola bar. These high-carbohydrate and sugary foods give us a brief stress relief, but they also cause blood sugar spikes, fatigue, increased hunger signals, more eating, weight gain, and even more stress.
It’s not easy to manage stress. But try to find some time in the day to focus on yourself. Going out for a walk at lunch, having a bath before bed, listening to your favorite music, or regularly talking with a friend can do wonders for your stress levels and mental health.
-
Take a supplement proven to promote healthy blood sugar levels.
Blood Sugar Focus promotes healthy blood sugar levels by reducing your body’s blood sugar absorption and production. Our proven formula of proprietary herbs and minerals is ideal for diabetics, prediabetics, people with insulin resistance or high blood sugar, and anyone who wants to lose weight.
Remember you have the control and power to take charge of your health. When you make your blood sugar a focus, you’re doing so much good for your body. Commit today to take control over your health by putting an end to sugar cravings, stress eating, dangerous belly fat, health problems, and energy crashes and highs.
You deserve to feel and look good all the time. Your health truly is in your hands and we want you to have the knowledge and tools to focus on your health.
Subscribe to our newsletter, join our Health Focused Facebook community page, and follow @healthfocusedforyou on Instagram to stay updated with the latest from us about health and wellness.
Contact us with your questions and browse our FAQs to learn more about the role blood sugar has in disease prevention, weight loss, and lifelong health.