I am not only a nutritionist but a general health enthusiast. I can say that I eat a well-balanced variety of whole foods, exercise regularly, and sleep fairly well. But even I notice sometimes after a meal I can feel tired, sluggish, irritable, and get brain fog. I know that I have a sweet tooth (think dates, fruit smoothies, and dark chocolate), these are not “unhealthy” foods, but they are sweet. And they can spike our blood glucose. But, oh boy, little did I know how much. Especially fruit smoothies. Let’s just say, my time using a GCM has been full of many lightbulb moments.  

Here are two that stand out: 

Let me describe a situation of mine, which may sound familiar to you: I had a stressful start to the day due to my mile-long “to-do” list. But even on these days, I know not to skip my breakfast. 

I had my regular gluten-free bread with honey, banana, and almond butter. When I checked my blood glucose I couldn’t believe it. It spiked – big time! This left me feeling irritable and running on what felt like nervous energy for the next 2-3 hours. 

Then the blood glucose dropped and I was very hungry and tired. I was in a rush, so I had a protein-rich smoothie for lunch and went for a walk in the afternoon. By the afternoon I was so hungry and craving high sugar foods. (I guess you’ve been there too.) So I ate gluten-free pasta for dinner, but I was hungry again at 9 pm. 

I reflected and noticed that after what felt like a long and stressful day, I couldn’t seem to feel satisfied, my blood glucose was still high and I had trouble sleeping. For nearly the whole day, I was a bit of a stressed mess.

We’ve all heard it before, stress triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response in our body. This response causes the stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) to run through our body, which then triggers glucose to dump into your bloodstream. This all happens fast and is a biological design to prepare for action (like run away from a tiger).  

Nowadays a tiger chase is unlikely, but this stress response can be triggered by all manner of day-to-day things such as work deadlines, challenging conversations, or even watching some sad news on television. 

The bad news is that chronic stress levels over a long time are not good. They can cause a decrease in insulin secretion, which then leads to continuously elevated blood glucose levels. 

Lowering stress in our life can take time and dedication, but it’s possible. It’s especially helpful to be able to ‘see inside’ our body when this is happening. Understanding our blood glucose can be key to help manage and reduce stress because we can see a direct cause and effect. 

This can empower us and help us to learn what increases and decreases our stress levels, and in my case this is true. I saw that on days where I was not stressed, my blood glucose remained relatively within a target range.

In contrast to my experience above, I had one day where my blood glucose stayed within the target range for 90% of the time. How did this happen? 

On that day, I halved the amount of honey on my toast, added some extra almond butter, and opted for no banana (but strawberries). I also ate a boiled egg for breakfast. And afterwards, I felt great! No spike, no tired and cranky vibes, and I felt full until lunchtime. 

I can see how much better I feel when I don’t experience those blood sugar spikes, and I’m a much nicer person to be around too.

Science shows us that certain nutrients help slow down the digestion/breakdown of food in the body. For example, eating a handful of almonds before a banana, or enjoying a boiled egg before some dark chocolate. By slowing down the digestion of carbohydrates, the sugars enter the bloodstream more slowly, which results in a lower blood glucose spike, and we feel much for it!

It’s tempting to adjust my lifestyle to try and get better results, but I decided to stick to my normal eating habits. By staying authentic, I was able to get a realistic account of how my day-to-day lifestyle affects my blood glucose. This also now provides me with a baseline to track my progress in the future if I make changes to my eating habits.

I learned that my delicious morning smoothie blend is causing a significant spike in my blood glucose. And as tasty as it is, I felt lethargic and hungry within 1-2 hours.

So I changed the recipe to combat the blood glucose spike. 

I opted for no honey, reduced the amount of fruit, and added in more protein powder, coconut yogurt, and chia seeds. The results were mindblowing – I felt physically better, and my blood glucose levels were more stable. And besides the benefit for my blood glucose, it also tasted yummy!

It still raised my blood glucose, a bit higher than recommended, but I am learning how to adapt to it. To me, it was just super interesting how much small changes in food intake can actually impact my blood glucose, and my physical well-being. 

After eating food, the sugar from that food was broken down into glucose and other simple carbohydrates and then released into my bloodstream, hence why my blood glucose spiked. 

Blood glucose spikes happen when our blood glucose rises and falls quickly (below the level you had before eating). This explains why I felt so tired^[1] and hungry after eating high-carb meals,^[2] such as gluten-free pasta. 

Too many ups and downs a day will negatively impact my health in the long run, because they can promote the development of diseases such as type 2 diabetes.^[3]