Your dinner affects your sleep and therefore your blood sugar the following day. That's why we have a few tips for you on how to improve your blood sugar response, both when eating out and at home.
For many of us, dinner is the highlight of the day. Lunch was four to five hours ago, and now you feel your energy dwindling and your concentration faltering. You can't wait to get home and check what's in your fridge. This is a typical sign that your body is hungry and needs to refuel.
Other signals that your body is ready to eat:
- Dizziness or beginning headaches
- Your mood deteriorates and you feel irritable and short of breath
- Your hands start to shake
- Your stomach growls
- You can't concentrate on anything other than food
If you're always hungry before dinner, boost your energy intake in the afternoon with a variety of healthy snacks.
And even if you're not a big snacker, a healthy dinner is always a smart choice to balance your blood sugar before bedtime.
What is a healthy dinner?
A healthy dinner is a balanced meal that includes a variety of food groups and a variety of colors. At the end of dinner, you should feel full, but not overly full, so you can sleep well.
A healthy dinner contains all three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. All three provide you with energy and important nutrients that keep you healthy. If you skip one, you risk missing out on a specific nutrient or fiber, making it more difficult to stick to the diet long-term.
After a long day at work, driving to and from the kids' activities, or a strenuous workout at the gym, the last thing most of us want to do is spend an hour in the kitchen preparing a complicated dinner, right? So let's keep it simple by following a few easy steps.
Make your own dinner at home
The advantage of cooking at home is that you have complete control over ingredients and portion sizes. Even seemingly healthy restaurant meals can contain unnecessary sugar, which can negatively impact blood sugar levels.
One of our favorite examples is the blood sugar response to ramen ordered from a restaurant versus one made at home.
The principle of the healthy plate
Visualizing macronutrients can help you create a healthy dinner.
Half of the plate is reserved for vegetables: salad, freshly cut vegetables for dipping or fried.
A quarter of the plate is dedicated to high-quality carbohydrates, including whole grains, starchy vegetables, and legumes.
The last quarter is reserved for plant or animal protein.
Finally, add healthy fats such as olive oil or fresh avocado.
Here's an easy-to-prepare recipe that doesn't take much time and supports healthy blood sugar.
Recipe tip: Green Shakshuka
To prepare this blood sugar-friendly recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 green pepper
- 5 g mint
- 20 g parsley
- 1 leek
- 50 g spinach
- 100 g frozen peas
- 0.5 lemon (juice)
- 200 g feta cheese (divided)
- 4 eggs
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 pinch of pepper
- 1 pinch of nutmeg
- 1 pinch of vegetable oil
Preparation steps:
- Peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the cores from the bell peppers and dice them.
- Chop the mint and parsley. Halve the leek lengthwise and cut into thin slices.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for about 2 minutes.
- Add the bell peppers and leeks and sauté for about 4 minutes. Season with cumin and freshly grated nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Add the spinach, peas, chopped mint, and half the parsley to the pan. Once the spinach begins to shrink, squeeze the lemon half and add the juice.
- Crumble half of the feta cheese into the pan and stir.
- Use a spatula to make two small holes in the leek mixture and crack the eggs into them. Reduce heat.
- Season the eggs with salt. Cook for 10-12 minutes, until the eggs have set and the yolks are still soft. It's best not to stir them at this point.
- Crumble the remaining feta cheese and sprinkle it over the shakshuka. Garnish with the remaining parsley and season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
Eating out
The healthy plate is also a fantastic way to evaluate dishes when eating out. It's a great way to set the tone for a balanced blood sugar meal.
Many restaurant meals are 50% carbohydrates and 50% protein, with two small pieces of broccoli on the side. And it gets even more unbalanced when you enjoy the delicious bread often served as an appetizer. This immediately spikes your blood sugar. The bread at the beginning causes your blood sugar to rise quickly, and by the time you're finished eating, it's back down again, leaving you craving energy in the form of dessert.
We assume that you don't actually want that.
So let's look at some tricks you can use when eating out and still have a blood sugar-friendly response.
Choose the healthiest carbohydrates
Choose healthy, complex carbohydrates like whole grains and vegetables. Because they contain fiber and are less processed, these foods don't cause such sharp fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
Cover Your Carbs
When carbohydrates are consumed as part of a meal that also contains proteins and fats, they have a slower effect on blood sugar.
Eat your food in the right order.
Start with vegetables in a salad or eat the vegetables on your plate first. Follow with protein and fat, then starchy foods like beans or potatoes, and finally rice or pasta.
Drink smart
Choose water. It's that simple.
When we drink alcohol, we give our liver a lot to work with. Therefore, it's best to avoid it. But if you do drink alcohol, keep the following in mind: Light to moderate alcohol consumption can lead to lower blood sugar levels in the short term. This is because alcohol can reduce the liver's ability to produce and pump new glucose into the bloodstream, and light alcohol consumption can lead to increased short-term insulin sensitivity.
Eat slowly
This will help you know when you're full. It's okay if you don't eat everything on your plate. You could even ask for a takeaway box (or bring your own) so you have some left over the next day. This could be an interesting glucose experiment to see how differently your body reacts to the same meal on two days.
Find the right time
Eating too close to bedtime will affect your sleep—and not in a good way. Unfortunately, poor sleep also affects your blood sugar the next day.
As a rule of thumb, you should eat at least 3 hours before going to bed so that your body has enough time to digest before you go to bed.
Move
Walk home or park your car farther away so you have a few more steps to take before heading home. Even 10 minutes of walking can lower blood sugar levels after eating.
It's that simple. Don't worry too much and enjoy your meal at the restaurant.
With a little thought and planning, you can easily improve your blood sugar response and enjoy your dinner.
It doesn't matter whether you cook yourself or eat out.
To find out what works best for you, choose our Hello Sugar program and learn more about the tips and tricks to balance your blood sugar.
