What is the blood sugar roller coaster?

The blood sugar roller coaster is when your blood sugar levels go up and down outside of the optimal ranges. (Please see the chart below for the optimal and standard blood glucose ranges.) When blood sugar veers outside of optimal ranges, you are on the blood sugar roller coaster and you may get symptoms that range from mood dysfunction (irritability, brain fog, feeling anxious, and/or moody), to poor sleep, fatigue, and loss of focus, to weight gain and skin issues. Sometimes you might not notice any signs of blood sugar imbalance until more serious issues begin to develop, such as pre-diabetes and diabetes; cardiovascular disease; mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder; inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis; kidney disease and eye disease; Alzheimer’s disease; and cancer.^{1 2}

How do you feel when you are NOT on the blood sugar roller coaster?

When your blood sugar levels are in the optimal ranges, it usually results in a greater sense of wellbeing, having more energy, no sleepiness after meals or mid-day, balanced moods, stable energy, restful and refreshing sleep, being mentally sharp, less inflammation, no back-ground achiness—you feel like a supple tiger—and no more feeling “hangry.” Ultimately, it puts more health and vitality into your years.

What is blood sugar?

Blood sugar is the amount of glucose in your blood at any given time. Whenever you eat something that contains carbohydrates, your digestive system breaks it down into smaller components, and one of those components is glucose. However, the body can make glucose if and when needed and sometimes it makes it even when it is not needed—this can happen when you have been on the blood sugar roller coaster for years.¹⁰

Carbohydrates are found in grains, legumes, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. The highest amounts are found in grains (whole and refined); sugar and sugar containing foods; starchy foods like tapioca and cassava; starchy vegetables; and high-sugar fruits. Blood sugar levels are closely regulated by your body. You need some, or you will fall into a coma, but too much blood sugar damages tissues. It is this damage to body proteins and fats that results in the development and progression of the degenerative diseases listed above.

The more carbohydrates (sugar and starches) you eat, the harder your body will have to work to keep your blood sugar levels within the optimal ranges. If you routinely eat foods high in carbohydrates, you will push your post-prandial (post meal or after eating) blood glucose levels outside of the optimal range frequently, putting you on the blood sugar roller coaster with all of its negative consequences. Eventually, this type of diet will also push your fasting blood sugar level outside of the optimal range.

If glucose is damaging to the body, why do we need it?

Glucose is necessary for cellular energy production, especially in the brain. But the body also uses fats and ketones to produce energy. It is important to understand that the body is supposed to be metabolically flexible, with most cells using glucose or fats interchangeably to produce energy. Some cells require or “prefer” specific substrates: for example, red blood cells require glucose. The brain cells use glucose and ketones (molecules produced when liver cells use fat to produce energy) but must get some of their energy from glucose. The heart prefers fats but also uses ketones and glucose. Colon cells require a fat known as butyric acid for optimal energy production and thus optimal health. When colon cells do not get enough butyric acid, they dysfunction, and can turn cancerous.¹⁷ Thus, while your body needs some glucose to meet cellular energy needs, it does not need excessive amounts. Limiting consumption of foods that are quickly digested into glucose is best for your overall health as it keeps you off the blood sugar roller coaster.

What should you eat to help get you off and stay off the blood sugar roller coaster?

There is an incredible array of delicious and nourishing foods you can enjoy that will help you balance your blood sugar. Meals should be composed of low to moderate carbohydrate vegetables, low-sugar fruits, quality protein, and healthy fats. (Please see this document on Regenivore Meal Wheel Food List for more details.) These foods have the added benefit of being high in micro-nutrients (vitamin, minerals, and super nutrients) that help you live your healthiest most vibrant life. You can add in higher carbohydrate foods, such as starchy vegetables, grains, and legumes in moderation, and sensible indulgences—treats and libations—occasionally, based on your activity level and your biochemical individuality. Most people benefit from keeping their daily carbohydrate consumption between 100 and 150 grams per day—a level that helps keep most people off the blood sugar roller coaster.¹¹ However, some people may need a lower amount of carbohydrates, depending on how dysregulated their blood sugar currently is, or higher amounts, if they are very active. When you do indulge in higher carbohydrate foods, combining them with quality protein and healthy fats can help maintain a more balanced blood sugar response and keep your blood sugar levels within the optimal ranges.

Other lifestyle factors, besides diet, that help promote balanced blood sugar are regular movement; adequate, quality sleep; stress reduction; and cultivation of connectedness with others, animals, and the planet.

How can you know what your blood glucose levels are?

Since it is often difficult to feel whether your blood sugar is balanced or not, taking a peek inside with a blood glucose meter can be extremely helpful. These simple devices can be purchased at your local pharmacy (and sometimes even obtained through your doctor’s office) and can be used to track your blood glucose numbers with a little finger prick. Most people will only need to track their fasting and post-prandial blood glucose levels for a little while to get a feel for which foods best support healthy blood glucose levels and which should be avoided or minimized. Just be sure to compare your numbers to the optimal ranges for truly optimal health. 

What does fasting and post-prandial blood sugar mean?

Your fasting blood sugar level is the amount of glucose you have in your blood after you have not eaten for several hours. Fasting blood glucose is usually measured when you have not eaten or drunk anything but water for 8 hours. When fasting blood sugar is within the optimal range, between 82 and 88 mg/dL, you have about 1 teaspoon of glucose in your blood.^{12 13}

Your post-prandial blood sugar level is the amount of glucose in your blood after you eat. Ideally, your blood sugar will reach its highest point around 1-hour after eating a meal. To stay off the blood sugar roller coaster it is important that you are not eating food that frequently raises your blood sugar over 130 mg/dL. When your post-prandial blood sugar is 130 mg/dL you have about 1 ½ teaspoons of glucose in your blood.

Two hours after eating, blood sugar levels typically start to come down, and this level should be 110 mg/dL or less, but ideally back to your fasting level—provided your fasting level is in the optimal range. The closer your blood sugar is to your fasting level two hours after eating, the better for your health, especially if your fasting level is in the optimal range.

Three hours after eating you should definitely be back to your fasting level. This is a healthy response to eating a meal; it indicates your meal was most likely nutritious and supportive of keeping you off the blood sugar roller coaster.

If you just ate a meal high in starch and/or sugar, your blood sugar may rise high over your fasting level—potentially over 130 mg/dL. If you just had a meal of vegetables, healthy fats, and proteins, your blood sugar will mostly likely not rise as high, it will likely be less than or equal to 130 mg/dL. The more higher-carbohydrate-containing foods you eat, the harder your body has to work to maintain optimal blood glucose levels. Identifying the foods or meals that regularly spike your blood sugar too high, too fast, or too long can help you to individualize your diet for longevity.

What does it mean if you eat something clearly unhealthy, like a candy bar, and your blood sugar does not elevate over the 130 mg/dL mark?

This means your body is doing a good job of keeping your blood glucose in the optimal post-prandial range. This is a good thing and indicates that you currently have a healthy body, but, behind the scenes it is working really hard—harder than it should or can maintain indefinitely—to keep your blood sugar within healthy limits.  If you continue to eat processed foods high in carbs, over time your body will slowly lose this ability to adapt. This is not a good practice and will eventually put you on the blood sugar roller coaster with all of its attendant health issues.

How does the body produce energy?

Energy production in the body takes place at the cellular level. Cells make energy by processing glucose, fats (as fatty acids) and ketones into ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). This takes multiple nutrients and many steps. The mitochondria of the cell are where most of this energy production takes place and some of the most important micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) needed to make this happen are iron, magnesium, copper, all the B-vitamins (B1, B2, niacin (B-3), folic acid, biotin, pantothenic acid, B6, and B12), vitamin C, and carnitine.^{14 15} Insufficient amounts of any one of these micro-nutrients can result in energy production slowing down and becoming inefficient. When this happens, glucose cannot be utilized efficiently, energy is produced with more waste products, and glucose levels in the blood can veer outside of the optimal ranges. Additionally, it is theorized that when your cells lack any of the nutrients necessary to convert carbohydrates into glucose and glucose into energy, this can lead to insulin resistance.¹⁶ Cells become resistant to the message from insulin because to accept more glucose into the cell, without the nutrients necessary to process it into energy, will lead to cellular damage.

High carbohydrate foods are foods that are also lower in micro nutrients and in some cases completely lacking in the micro nutrients necessary to process the carbs they contain (or the glucose they get converted into) into energy.

What do blood glucose numbers mean?

After meals (post-prandial) when blood sugar is within the optimal range, we can have up to 1½ to 2 teaspoons of glucose in our blood, no matter what we eat. Drink a can of soda, which contains about 4 teaspoons of glucose, and the body goes to work to ensure that blood glucose levels do not rise higher than 2 teaspoons.¹⁸ A typical American breakfast of cereal with skim milk and a banana contributes nearly 3 teaspoons of glucose and additional digestible carbohydrate, some of which will also be converted to glucose.¹⁹ The body has to scramble to get all that glucose out of the bloodstream and into storage, (either in the liver, muscles, or fat cells), because all that glucose in the blood would be toxic. If your blood sugar-regulating mechanisms are working correctly, your blood glucose levels will go no higher than 2 teaspoons, even after slamming it with way more glucose than it needs. This may sound like small amounts, but as the body’s blood sugar-regulating mechanisms become dysregulated and blood glucose levels stay high and fasting blood glucose levels rise, it is only ½ teaspoon difference between an optimal fasting blood sugar range (82-88 mg/dL, about 1 teaspoon) and a diabetic fasting blood sugar range (>126 mg/dL, about 1½ teaspoons).

How does insulin fit into all of this?

Insulin is a hormone that helps to regulate blood sugar levels after you eat. When you eat a meal or drink something that contains carbohydrates, your body secrets insulin in response.  In fact, if your body is working as it should, you will secrete insulin within two minutes of eating a meal or drinking something that contains carbohydrates. This is before you have digested the carbs into glucose and absorbed it into your blood and is known as your first-phase insulin response. It is a very important step in regulating your blood sugar levels. Then, as carbohydrates are digested and absorbed as glucose into the blood stream, your pancreas continues to make and secrete insulin to continue to help regulate blood glucose levels.

How does insulin regulate blood sugar levels?

Insulin helps to regulate blood sugar levels by sending a message to your cells to prepare for incoming glucose. (Remember, your body secrets insulin within two minutes of consuming something that contains carbohydrates, long before glucose from the meal is absorbed into the blood stream.) This message tells your body to stop making glucose if it was, to stop using fats for energy, and it tells cells to increase the number of glucose transporters on the outside of the cell so that they can soak up the glucose that is coming in from the meal.

What can go wrong in this process?

Sometimes the first phase insulin response becomes dysfunctional. When this happens post prandial blood glucose will most likely be outside of the optimal range, when consuming a typical meal containing carbohydrates, shortly after eating.

Additionally, if your blood sugar regulating mechanisms have started to go awry, your body may not respond to insulin’s message and it does not stop making glucose if it was, it does not stop using fats for energy, and your cells do not increase the number of glucose transporters and thus they do not effectively soak up the glucose that is coming in from the meal. One significant contributing factor to blood sugar-regulating mechanisms going awry is when you have insufficient levels of one or more of the nutrients that are necessary to process glucose into energy. If this is the case, your cells may not respond to insulin’s message because they cannot process glucose into energy and if that cell transported more glucose into the cell it would lead to cellular damage. If your cells do not respond to insulin, this is known as insulin resistance.

By focusing on the nutritional quality of the food you eat, taking select dietary supplements that support cellular energy production and the first phase insulin response, and incorporating movement into your daily routine (try starting with a 2–5-minute walk after your meals), you can start to provide your body with what it needs to support insulin sensitivity and help keep you off the blood sugar roller coaster.²⁰

References

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