60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Sugar Read online

  Your tests will soon reveal your peak time, and this should be when you test yourself to discover how a particular meal has affected you. Ideally your blood-sugar level should not peak any higher than 140 to 145 mg/dl. Start with some of your favorite meals and see how they affect your blood sugar. It will be enlightening, and give you the courage to make the changes and adjustments that need to be made to keep your blood sugar under control.

  Mirrors are something we take for granted, but where would we be without them? Almost all of us make use of mirrors every day. Is our hair looking all right? Does this shirt really work for us? Do we have anything in our nose that doesn’t belong there? Of course mirrors can be a bit cruel. When we gain weight they expose it mercilessly. But they tell us the truth and they motivate us. If our hair is mussed, we will take the extra time to deal with it. If there is dirt on our face, we will wash ourselves.

  So it is with your friendly little blood-glucose monitor. Those bold black numbers will either compliment you and encourage you to keep on with what you’re doing, or they will shout at you to stop, turn around, and go the other way. Your meter is your friend. Treat it well, think fond thoughts of it, and listen when it speaks.

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  Carb-Cutting

  There is no getting around it. If you want permanent control over blood sugar, you are going to have to cut some things out of your diet. You are going to have to control your carbohydrate intake. No, you will not need to do away with all carbs. That would be unwise, unhealthy, and just plain stupid. Our bodies need some carbohydrates daily for optimum health. But we don’t need nearly so many as most Americans continually eat!

  In earlier days, processed food was unheard of. Today’s desserts did not exist. A dessert in those days was to eat an apple or some grapes or a watermelon. There was no soda, no doughnuts, no sugary cereals in dazzling colors, and nobody had ever heard of pizza. People worked hard, most stayed slim, and they ate whole grains, meat (when they could get it), vegetables, and enjoyed a little fruit in season. Diabetes was rare.

  That was then; this is now. We have discovered thousands of ways to fill ourselves with sugar, stuff our stomachs with pasta, and glut ourselves on white rice and white bread. To make matters worse we wash all these things down with supersized sodas loaded with, you guessed it, more sugar. What’s wrong with this picture?

  As I began to research the causes of runaway blood sugar I began to discover some of the basics of good health and learned why the standard American diet is so pathetic, and why it leads folks like me straight to the land of diabetes once our youthful metabolism begins to give way to its slower, middle-aged replacement.

  It is not that our bodies need no sugar; they most definitely do. They simply don’t need nearly as much as we are shoveling into them. Many nutritionists believe a glass or two of red wine each day may be healthy for you. But drinking a dozen glasses of wine at each meal will destroy you. So it is with carbohydrates. A thin slice of whole-grain bread with an otherwise low-carb meal is no problem. A small portion of brown rice, along with some grilled chicken and a salad is reasonable. But a breakfast of a large bowl of sugary cereal, a couple of slices of bread, and a big glass of orange juice is dietary suicide. You are throwing so many carbs at your abused and overworked pancreas it has no idea where to even start. All it can do is dump out as much insulin as it can possibly manage.

  If your pancreas hasn’t yet been severely damaged by your abuse, it will provide enough insulin to eventually get the job done, but most likely you will experience a blood-sugar spike initially and then a miserable sinking feeling in a couple of hours when all that insulin forces your blood sugar toward dangerously low levels. If your pancreas is no longer capable of providing sufficient insulin, your blood sugar will stay elevated for many hours, damaging organs and nerves. When this goes on for years it will eventually take an enormous toll on your health and your life.

  If you are starting to show rising blood sugar you need to start making some changes, and the first change on the list needs to be a significant reduction of high-carb foods. It is not spinach or cucumbers or tuna that are making your blood sugar soar; it is Sugar Smacks and doughnuts, and chocolate cake and lasagna and Dr. Pepper, and cinnamon rolls and…well, you get the idea!

  There are many offenders in the high-carb category, but here are some of the worst:

  Potatoes are one of the highest-carb foods on your table. What’s more, the many carbs they possess break down with blazing speed into sugars once inside your body. Other than the fact that you get some extra nutrients, there is not much difference between eating a potato and eating a very large candy bar. A large baked potato or a large helping of mashed potatoes will contain about 60 grams of carbs. A normal Snickers bar has around 34 grams of carbs. Many well-meaning diabetics wouldn’t dare touch the Snickers bar, and yet feel no concern over flooding their bloodstream with massive amounts of sugar from potatoes every evening. Whether you get hit by a bullet from a cheap, scratched pistol or an expensive, shiny new one, a bullet is still a bullet, and you’re in trouble either way.

  Bread seems like such a natural food that it is hard to imagine anyone having anything bad to say about it.

  Bread in its whole-grain form isn’t a bad food, but there is no getting around it—for people with blood-sugar problems it is problematic. Even whole-wheat bread can spell trouble for diabetics and people who are insulin-resistant. Its carbs may break down into sugar a little slower than the white bread, and it is definitely more nutritious, but those carbs can still rise up and bite you.

  Rice is awesome, as far as taste is concerned. To drench it with some kind of sauce and have some pieces of meat throughout the mix is a taste sensation. But like bread, rice is a high-carb food. You cannot eat it as often as you like or as much as you like. And don’t be fooled into thinking this only applies to white rice. A cup of white rice contains 49.6 grams of carbs (a candy bar and a half). Depending on the brand, brown rice is not far behind, and certain brands actually contain slightly more carbs. Granted, the brown rice has more fiber, but those carbs are still going to be a problem for people who struggle with blood sugar.

  Desserts and sugary foods and drinks. If something tastes sweet, there is a good reason for that. Unless it has been artificially sweetened it is going to be loaded with sugar. And when that sugar hits your bloodstream, your blood-sugar level is going to soar.

  I grew up (in the 1960s) hearing a never-ending commercial that told me, “Wonder Bread builds strong bodies 12 ways.” (Back in the 1930s they used the same slogan, but it promised a mere 8 ways.)

  If you ever plan to get your blood sugar under control you are going to have to cut back on these kinds of foods. It would be marvelous if you could corral your blood sugar without changing your diet. If we could just keep on eating those same good old foods that we grew up on—breads and pasta and rolls and biscuits; heaping helpings of rice and beautiful, plump baked potatoes. Finishing each meal with a big bowl of ice cream drenched in chocolate syrup. We dare to dream, Perhaps there is some new plan or medicine that will make that possible. Forget it—it’s not going to happen.

  When you sit down at a table you need to immediately begin to assess the foods laid out before you. There’s a bowl of green beans—no problem there. I can have a big helping of those. Look at those beautiful avocados—I’m going to really enjoy one of those. Uh-oh, there’s a problem! Look at that bowl of rice. I’m going to have to make sure my portion is about the size I would give my six-year-old daughter.

  To be effective at lowering your blood sugar you must become sensitive to and aware of the blood-sugar-raising potential of the foods you consume. You need to be able to look at a food and instantly be able to categorize it as safe, unsafe, or so-so. The unsafe foods may be perfectly wonderful foods for people without blood-sugar problems. But not for you. You can still eat them occasionally, but not in the quantity that you did before. You now march to the beat of a different drummer.

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  Nuts to You!

  One common problem for people who switch to a low-carb diet is that they often figure out what not to eat far more quickly than what they can eat. Stay away from that cake! Don’t go near those doughnuts! Watch out for that nice baked potato! The “thou shalt not’s” loom large, but the “thou shalt’s” are sometimes hard to determine. Allow me to give you a major “thou shalt.” Thou shalt eat nuts, all kinds of nuts, and frequently!

  So what’s so great about nuts? For starters, they are high in protein and relatively low in carbs. (One little problem is that the nut many people find the tastiest of all, the cashew, has twice the carbs that most nuts have, and is probably the one you should go easy on.) But as a whole, nuts are nutritious and pack a lot of power in their nutty little shape. Years ago they were thought to be problematic since they contain a lot of fat, but they have made a tremendous comeback as researchers are finding that they actually promote a healthy heart. Consider the following:

  Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health have examined the effect of eating nuts on cardiovascular health, reports the Harvard Men’s Health Watch. “Their work shows that nuts really are healthy, especially for men at risk for heart disease,” says Dr. Harvey B. Simon, editor.

  Studies show that healthy men, and those who have already suffered a heart attack, can reduce cardiovascular risk by eating nuts regularly. Doctors theorize that:

  • nuts may help lower cholesterol, partly by replacing less healthy foods in the diet

  • nuts contain mono- and polyunsaturated fats known to benefit the heart

  • the omega-3 fats found in walnuts may protect against irregular heart rhythms

  • nuts are rich in arginine, a substance that may improve blood vessel function

  • other nutrients in nuts (such as fiber and vitamin E) may also help lower cardiovascular risk.1

  For those with blood-sugar problems, nuts are truly a godsend. Nuts of all kinds—almonds, Brazil nuts, pistachios, walnuts, and even the lowly peanut (which is actually related more to beans than to tree nuts)—are gifts from heaven. Giving up those salty, bad-for-you snack foods doesn’t mean you have to go hungry. Nuts are your replacement for those blood-sugar-spikers like potato chips, nachos, french fries, Cheetos, Doritos, and the like. Not only are nuts much lower in carbs than nearly all our favorite American snacks, but they rank low on the glycemic index, which means that they break down very, very slowly in your body. And this means that the few carbohydrates that they do contain will be broken down into sugars slowly, gradually, and gently. Be sure to get unsalted nuts where possible, however.

  Nuts are pretty high in calories so if weight is an issue for you, it would be best to eat them in moderation. In my case, when I first went low-carb I lost so much weight that if it weren’t for nuts, I would have been in real trouble. As I learned more about what I could eat, that became less of an issue, but nuts have been a regular part of my diet for years now.

  For those whose blood-sugar levels can go in either extreme, nuts are a terrific food for keeping things humming along smoothly. When you eat a meal, the high-carb, high-glycemic-index foods are going to break down first and rudely shove their sugars into your bloodstream. If those were the only foods you ate, your body would be forced to produce prodigious amounts of insulin in a hurry to deal with all those carbs. And after two or three hours, when the insulin had done its job and dealt with all that sugar, there would likely be a lot of leftover insulin looking for sugar to neutralize, but finding none. And when this happens, your blood-sugar levels can drop precipitously. This is when you find yourself shaking and feeling like you are about to faint. This occurs most often when your body is becoming insulin-resistant (becoming highly inefficient at cooperating with the insulin produced by your pancreas), and yet your pancreas is still capable of producing insulin in large amounts. This can also happen when you take pills to stimulate insulin production.

  The Mayo Clinic folks say this about nuts: “Eating nuts reduces your risk of developing blood clots that can cause a fatal heart attack. Nuts also improve the health of the lining of your arteries.”2

  When you include nuts in your meal, the nuts “hang around” much longer than the baked potato or chips ever could, and the slow release of their carbs gives the leftover insulin something to munch on, so it doesn’t take its revenge by driving your sugar levels too low. Thus no shaky or fainting episodes. Nuts also have the advantage of being extremely portable. Sure, you can take a bag of chips with you, but it’s harder to carry around. You can keep a small bag of nuts with you in your purse or pocket and have an easy snack that will barely budge your blood sugar. Sometimes I take them with me to McDonald’s to enjoy with a hamburger and a diet Coke. They are about a zillion times better for you than the french fries.

  In short, enjoy nuts often. They are the new chips for you. They taste just as good (I think better), evidence suggests they are good for your heart, and without a doubt they are far better in helping you to manage your blood sugar.

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  Pizza Made Possible

  Making dietary changes is not that hard. Losing weight is not particularly difficult. Lots of people do it every year. But making permanent dietary changes, especially when it involves giving up foods you have cherished and delighted in all of your life, is extremely difficult. Most people who lose weight by a change in diet will sooner or later, and probably sooner, return to their old ways, habits, and foods and gain back every pound they have lost—with interest!

  In order for a new, improved diet and lifestyle to be permanent there have to be two factors present: 1) there must be some real motivation to make those changes, and 2) the new lifestyle has to be as realistic and easy as possible while still bringing the desired results. This is why drastic, draconian, unrealistic cutbacks on everything that has ever given us comfort and pleasure are simply not going to work. Most folks can make those sacrifices for a few weeks; almost nobody can make them for a year, let alone a lifetime.

  As we seek to turn from the lifestyle that led us into the land of runaway blood sugar, there will have to be some serious changes made—no doubt about it. But we want to make it as much like your old lifestyle as possible. Although you need to turn from the standard American diet, you don’t need to stop being American. Superman used to make it his motto to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. And the American way is to go out to restaurants frequently: Italian restaurants, Chinese restaurants, steak restaurants, Mexican restaurants, and yes, pizza restaurants.

  Is it possible to go out for pizza and stay low-carb? It is indeed. Let’s consider the makeup of a pizza. While most health purists consider pizza a monstrous concoction, in truth many of the ingredients are either harmless or actually good for you. Pizza sauce is mostly tomatoes—a little higher in carbs than we would prefer, but not too bad. And of course pizzas have to have cheese—a fairly low-carb food. No problem with any meats they might have on top—meats have so few carbs they’re not worth mentioning. Mushrooms—no problem there. Jalapeno pepper slices—no carbs to speak of (if you can take the hot sensation).

  This brings us to the real problem—the bread, the foundation upon which the pizza stands. If only we could put all those ingredients on a huge lettuce leaf! (Actually, we could, but nobody would want it.) It is this bread that will go into your stomach, be quickly converted to sugar, surge through your blood, and raise your blood-sugar level through the roof.

  So when our friends invite us out, how do we avoid looking silly as we munch on our lowly salad, drink a glass of water, and look longingly at everybody else’s heaping plates of pepperoni pizza? There are three basic guidelines for eating pizza and keeping your blood sugar under control.

  First, make sure to eat a large salad. In some pizza restaurants they have a salad bar where you take as much as you want. Take a lot! Be sure to eat the salad first, with a low-carb dressing like ranch or Italian. By start
ing here you will dull your appetite and won’t be tempted to overeat on the pizza. This is especially important in buffet-style pizza restaurants, where you can keep coming back for more pizza—and more and more and more.

  Second, order thin-crust pizza. Remember, the cheese, the sauce, the pepperoni or sausage, and the mushrooms are not the problem. If you can just reduce the amount of bread you are eating, you can win. If you can cut the bread in half, you will only be dealing with half the carbs and will have done your overworked pancreas a great favor. So by all means choose the thin crust. You have just cut the carbs your body must process in half (more if you compare it with the thick-crust pizza).

  Finally, deal with the edge of the pizza, which is always the thickest part. Thick dough: more carbs; thin dough: fewer carbs. So do yourself a favor and break off that fat edge and save even more.

  By taking these steps you will have turned a blood-sugar disaster into a meal that is manageable. (You still cannot eat as much as you want. Limit yourself to three or four pieces.)

  Be sure to check your blood sugar about an hour after you have taken your last bite. If it has risen to no higher than 140 to 145 you have done it! You have eaten out at a pizza restaurant, enjoyed pizza, laughed and joked with your friends or family, and still kept your blood sugar in check. If your monitor reads 150 or above, take one less piece the next time. Keep reducing the number of pieces until your post-meal reading falls within the desired range (This number varies depending on who you read, but about 140 to 150 mg/dl is about as high as you should ever want to see on your blood-glucose monitor for your post-meal reading.)