Managing Low Blood Sugar with Diet
I had severe hypoglycemia in my youth. At age seventeen, I did a "college level" paper on functional hypoglycemia in some advanced placement high school class.
Functional Hypoglycemia means "your body just works that way and we do NOT know why." There are other types of hypoglycemia that get other labels.
Findings in my paper from over forty years ago:
If your blood sugar drops too low, your body releases adrenaline to access stored sugars in the liver as a crisis management thing and if you frequently have low blood sugar, there may be no stored sugars to draw upon. So you get a spike of adrenaline, you have a fight-or-flight response and it may in no way help your blood sugar.
If you are sleeping when this occurs, it typically triggers bad dreams, usually of you RUNNING from something. (What you run from will draw upon your particular socio-psychic experiences. I was usually running from dogs or werewolves. I don't much like dogs, to put it mildly.)
In addition to eating carefully ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, I ate a high fat, high protein bedtime snack with few or no carbs (or potatoes if I had to have carbs). So like bacon and eggs, something with cheese or leftover roulade and potatoes.
When I first started managing my issue with diet, I STILL sometimes woke up in the middle of the night with my blood sugar in the basement. I would microwave myself a scrambled egg as the quick, easy high protein answer. Over time, I STOPPED having that happen.
When I did have sweets, they tended to be on the fatty side, like cheesecake. That was less triggering of blood sugar issues.
Functional Hypoglycemia means "your body just works that way and we do NOT know why." There are other types of hypoglycemia that get other labels.
Findings in my paper from over forty years ago:
- There were no known drugs to treat it.
- Taking megadoses of vitamins helped but no one knew why.
- Contrary to what seems like it would help, eating sugar to raise your low blood sugar is about the absolute worst thing you can possibly do.
- Eat FREQUENT small meals. Eat five to six times a day instead of only THREE.
- Avoid processed sugars and other carbs that are quickly metabolized. You want SLOW BURNING FOODS.
- Fats, proteins and complex carbohydrates (aka "brown grains") are your friend.
- Do NOT ever DRINK sugary drinks. This includes fruit juices with added sugars. They are the work of the devil.
- Do NOT rely heavily on sugar substitutes as your solution. Just learn to consume less sugary foods and LIKE IT, fool. (Learn to add flavor some other way: Butter, spices.)
- Read labels, read labels, read labels and learn the zillion and one words that all mean "sugar." (Many of them end in "-ose": Sucrose, lactose, fructose...etc.)
- You may want to go easy on the caffeine. SOME caffeine is okay, but not large amounts of it. (Diet coke: Okay. Coffee: Can be problematic.)
If your blood sugar drops too low, your body releases adrenaline to access stored sugars in the liver as a crisis management thing and if you frequently have low blood sugar, there may be no stored sugars to draw upon. So you get a spike of adrenaline, you have a fight-or-flight response and it may in no way help your blood sugar.
If you are sleeping when this occurs, it typically triggers bad dreams, usually of you RUNNING from something. (What you run from will draw upon your particular socio-psychic experiences. I was usually running from dogs or werewolves. I don't much like dogs, to put it mildly.)
In addition to eating carefully ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, I ate a high fat, high protein bedtime snack with few or no carbs (or potatoes if I had to have carbs). So like bacon and eggs, something with cheese or leftover roulade and potatoes.
When I first started managing my issue with diet, I STILL sometimes woke up in the middle of the night with my blood sugar in the basement. I would microwave myself a scrambled egg as the quick, easy high protein answer. Over time, I STOPPED having that happen.
When I did have sweets, they tended to be on the fatty side, like cheesecake. That was less triggering of blood sugar issues.
