Blood Sugar Management
Hello!
Welcome to Monday.
To celebrate the launch of The Optimal Health Blueprint, today you’re getting another module (of 57 so far) from the course. This module is focused on why blood sugar management is crucial for your health and how you can start taking steps to manage it.
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Importance
Managing our blood sugar levels may be one of the most important things we can do for our health.
While spikes are normal and okay, we run into problems when these levels are chronically elevated. This is where issues like insulin resistance and subsequently type II diabetes become a concern, which can in turn lead to weight gain, neuropathic symptoms, cancers such as endometrial and colorectal, congestive heart failure, and impaired cognitive functioning.
“Characterized by insulin resistance and chronic high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia), type 2 diabetes can lead to both brain and metabolic dysfunction, and is also a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease.” - Ben Greenfield
These consequences occur because our bodies were not built to handle chronically elevated blood glucose. As usual, considering the lifestyles of our ancestors will help us understand this.
Up until very recently, humans didn’t have constant access to food, and regularly had periods of fasting and/or low carbohydrate, protein, or fat intake. Their diets would vary with the seasons and whatever was available day to day.
These days, we have essentially unlimited access to food, and especially, high-carbohydrate foods.
“When blood sugar is chronically elevated, the insulin released by the pancreas becomes progressively less effective in bringing those blood sugar levels down, and ultimately, pancreatic tissues begin to suffer damage.” -Ben Greenfield
Blood Sugar and Weight Management
Chronically high blood sugar is a major factor in weight gain and in our ability to lose weight:
“If glycemic variability gets out of control, and your blood sugar gets too high, your body has two choices: get rid of the blood sugar by shoveling it into muscle tissue, or store it as body fat. If your energy expenditure during the day isn’t high enough to convert blood sugar into energy in your muscles, you’re going to gain fat tissue.” - Ben Greenfield
Therefore, by controlling our blood sugar we will likely also see improvements in our weight. This may be the most important lifestyle factor to change when looking to lose weight.
Implementation
Exercise as a Tool
It seems like the most effective and accessible way to control our blood glucose is through exercise.
“Exercise is such a reliable means for controlling blood sugar levels that we may come to realize that a sedentary life is the primary risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.” - Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar
Morning Exercise
Morning exercise may be the most potent form of exercise for controlling blood sugar.
“Muscle cells are more efficient during daylight hours, which means that they are better able to contract and to make this metabolic shift from oxygen to sugar. That's why intense exercise is more beneficial to your metabolism as a whole when it's done earlier in the day, and it can help control blood sugar levels.” - Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar
So, one of the best things you can do for your health is to incorporate some morning movement into your day. Not only will this improve your blood sugar levels, but it will improve your circadian rhythm and will help you negate the effects of living in a sedentary society.
Strength Training
Strength training is another highly effective way to manage blood glucose levels.
When we lift weights, our body shuttles glucose into our muscles. This appears to occur even when using relatively low weights (30% of your 1 rep max (the absolute heaviest weight you could lift once)).
Therefore, doing some sort of resistance training is an effective way to move sugar from our blood and into our tissues to be used.
Post-prandial walk
Walking after a meal is a great way to control the blood sugar response to that meal. Studies have shown that taking a 15–20 minute walk after a meal leads to lower blood sugar levels than if someone went for a walk before a meal.
Stand more
Studies have shown that office workers who stand instead of sit at their desks reduce their blood sugar response to a meal by 43%.
Another study showed that sitting at a desk rather than standing after a meal increases the risk of developing type II diabetes by 112%.
High-intensity exercise
Engaging in just 7.5 to 20 minutes of high-intensity exercise can improve blood sugar levels for up to 3 days after the exercise session.
“Exercise is such a reliable means for controlling blood sugar levels that we may come to realize that a sedentary life is the primary risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.’“ — Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar
Protein as a Tool
Eating adequate protein, and specifically animal protein, may be another effective way to manage our blood sugar levels.
Chris Kresser explains,
“Because animal proteins have a higher digestibility rate and better amino acid profiles, they may be more efficient than plant proteins for regulating blood sugar and satiety.”
Dietary protein slows down our metabolism and helps prevent spikes in blood sugar after a meal. Furthermore, it keeps us feeling full for longer, decreasing the likelihood of us reaching for snacks - especially high carbohydrate ones.
A 2019 study in Frontiers in Nutrition explains,
“The current recommended dietary allowance for protein consumption is set at 0.8 g/kg/day and is based on dated studies on young healthy men and may not be sufficient for older adults. Protein consumption upwards of 1.0–1.5 g/kg/day in older adults is able to induce improvements in glycemic control and muscle mass.”“High protein diets have the ability to increase weight loss while preserving lean body mass therefore inducing “high-quality weight loss,” which provides favorable metabolic changes in older adults. High protein diets also induce beneficial outcomes on glycemic markers due to satiety, lowered post-prandial glucose response, increased thermogenesis, and the ability to decrease rates of muscle protein breakdown (MPB). The consumption of dairy specific protein consumption has also been shown to improve insulin sensitivity by improving body composition, enhancing insulin release, accelerating fat oxidation, and stimulating rates of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) in older adults. Exercise, specifically resistance training, also works synergistically to attenuate the progression of PD and T2D by further stimulating rates of MPS thereby increasing muscle mass and inducing favorable changes in glycemic control independent of lean body mass increases.”
This further highlights the importance of protein, especially for the older population.
The Role of Stress
Stress seems to impair our body’s ability to manage blood sugar levels, meaning that stress may be a contributing factor in both chronically elevated blood sugar as well as everything that follows from this, such as cardiovascular disease:
“Stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in numerous ways. It increases intestinal permeability, impairs blood sugar control, depresses immunity (which increases the risk of infection), contributes to fat storage in the liver, and promotes consumption of comfort and junk foods.” - Chris Kresser
Does Fasting Help?
It would be logical to think that fasting would be a useful tool for managing blood sugar levels. However, as with everything related to fasting, it’s complicated.
“Intermittent fasting itself is a stressor on the body, and in the context of our modern day life that's already filled with chronic emotional, physiological and environmental stressors, IF might do more harm than good. Fasting increases cortisol which can lead to blood sugar dysregulation, increased insulin resistance, lean muscle loss, fatigue and disruptions to thyroid function over time. In the short-term fasting may lower thyroid stimulating hormone, but elevated cortisol on a persistent basis can reduce the conversion of thyroid hormone.” - Jillian Greaves M.P.H., R.D., L.D.N. Integrative Functional Dietitian
Fasting may be a great tool for some people (especially men) but may actually make things worse for others (especially women).
Before You Go
Whenever you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you:
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4. Get access to my 30 day Weight Loss Accelerator course. If you’re struggling to see results from your training and want to shed fat and create a high-energy body, sign up for the 30 day course.