The Importance Of Maintaining Your Blood Sugar

Maintaining blood sugar is one of the vital tasks that our body has to perform order to continue working properly. However, modern lifestyles have massively messed with the way it’s able to do this. Sedentary lifestyles and overeating an abundance of highly refined, high sugar foods mean that over time our body’s signals and the way the cells work is disrupted.

Ordinarily, if you eat a meal that spikes your blood sugar (such as processed carbohydrates or sugary foods) your body pumps out insulin to reduce this and get things back into balance. However, if you continue to spike your blood sugar and insulin is constantly being released, your cells can become resistant to its effects meaning your blood sugar can rise or drop to dangerous levels.

Why Do Blood Sugar Issues Happen?

While modern lifestyles have changed enormously since we evolved as modern humans, the way our bodies work has not. We now live in a time where we have access to foods that simply wouldn’t have been present in our natural diets- and lots of them. The food industry processes foods which essentially removes the fibre. It’s fibre which prevents your blood sugar from spiking, meaning that when you eat these refined carbs (think white bread, rice and pasta) it sends your blood sugar rocketing.

It’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t eat these foods, but it’s important to be mindful about what you’re pairing them with to balance the effect it will have on your blood sugar. Adding high fibre foods such as fruits and vegetables can help to counteract the impact it will have.

Because of the way food is marketed to us, many of us eat things every day which we believe are healthy and good for us, when really they’re quite the opposite. Eating a diet that’s as close to natural as possible is beneficial to just about everyone- that means plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and some dairy products too.

What Are The Benefits of Maintaining Blood Sugar?

The way you feel day to day is so important- if you feel happy and well then you experience the world in a better way. One thing that could massively be affecting your mood is your blood sugar- if you’re living on refined carbs and sugar then you’ll experience ‘a roller coaster’ effect of hunger, cravings, brain fog, poor attention and poor sleep as a result of the constant crashes. Your brain will signal for you to continue eating more of these foods as a desperate way to regain some quick energy.

You’ve probably found yourself that the more you eat of these kinds of foods, the more you want them and this is why. When your blood sugar is stable, you won’t experience these cravings and false hunger signals. This makes it easier to maintain your weight or lose those extra lbs you’re carrying. With a healthy body weight, you avoid all kinds of weight related health issues later down the line.

What Chronic Conditions Can Poor Blood Sugar Control Lead To?

Diabetes is the most obvious condition that results from poor blood sugar control. If you’re at risk of diabetes or already have it, it’s important to know how to eat to protect your health- read more here to find out some tips and tricks. Other conditions that can occur in time are dementia, heart disease, cholesterol issues and many more. It’s incredibly serious so something to take action on.