How to Manage Low Blood Sugar (Hypoglycemia)
Learn how to effectively manage low blood sugar, boost energy, and live healthy.
Instructions
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Hypoglycemia is a condition of extreme blood sugar levels. You may find yourself tired all of the time, sluggish, moody, hungry, or on a more extreme level, experience muscle soreness or stiffness, dizziness, body tremors, and the inability to process thoughts clearly...but there's hope! This guide will teach you how to manage your overall diet appropriately, no matter the severity. First, we will examine general nutrition, then we will discuss each meal, and finally, what to do when your blood sugar drops.
Proper nutrition requires that we not only eat healthy foods, but that we eat healthy ratios of foods. Most people are not aware of this! So what does a healthy meal look like? If you imagine each meal as a plate, one half of that plate should be vegetables and greens that are not big carbs (i.e. carrots and potatoes.) Only one forth of your plate should be carbs, and one fourth protein. Whatever you drink needs to be counted in your meal as well (yes, a glass of juice or soda is going to count as a carb!) Lets examine each meal...
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Common breakfast items are oatmeal, orange juice, toast, fruit, or pancakes. As healthy as these may seem, the problem is that most people are too used to consuming a large amount of carbs, and what these do, is spike blood sugar, and your body goes into overtime trying to manage it. An hour or two later, you may experience a "crash," which may leave you sleepy, dizzy, faint, shaky, or foggy in thought.
A good breakfast is high in protein (eggs are an excellent choice.) If you don't like eggs, as I don't, there are other options. My breakfast might include fresh cut cucumbers or celery, lettuce greens, a couple slices of low fat cheese (for protein) or unsalted mixed nuts (but not peanuts.) I limit my carbs to one piece of toast or a glass of orange juice if I don't feel like drinking water, but I don't do both.
These things may not seem filling on the surface, but they don't cause your blood sugar to spike, and in the process, require you to consume even more foods and sugars later to recover from a sugar crash. It takes some time for the body to adjust to a lifestyle change like this, but once it adjusts, you'll begin to truly feel better. I myself had more energy, my moods improved, and my immune system became stronger! So, adjust your meals to your needs...if you need to eat a lot, choose vegetables and proteins to supply your energy.
Lunch may include salads, vegetable soups, and sandwiches...if you choose to eat a sandwich, make it with only one piece of bread, and the usual amount of meat, vegetables and cheese that you would put on a regular sandwich...just use less bread. This limits your carb intakes. Another option is low carb wraps, which work very well. One of my favorite lunchtime sides are dried vegetable chips sprinkled with a little bit of sea salt. Check grocery stores for like items.
Some vegetables that work well for this diet include lettuce greens, onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, cucumbers, pickles, sprouts, spinach leaves, peas, asparagus, and radishes. Avoid too many carrots and potatoes.
Be careful of drinking energy drinks and sodas, as these spike blood sugar. If you get tired of water, you could mix just a little bit of fruit juice to sparkling water and that would be a far better choice.
Vegetable soups and salads work just as well with dinners. Steamed vegetables are great. Be careful of how much rice, pasta, and potatoes you consume, as these common dinner items elevate blood sugar.
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No matter how well you eat, you may still experience crashes. This is part of the disease. It will greatly improve over time with care and patient work (in my experience, they became less common and less severe,) which is why eating right is important, but for those moments when it does drop, it may help to carry a small packet of orange juice or those orange slice candies they sell at grocery stores and gas stations. As hypoglycemics, we do have to face the fact that sometimes our blood sugar is going to drop. Try using these minimally though, and keep them on hand for emergencies or when you are very busy and unable to stop and eat. It should only take about two orange slices to bring your sugar back up to where it needs to be. Be careful not to put more sugar into your body than absolutely necessary, as sugar causes crashes.
Good luck! With care and time, you can lead a healthy, active life despite this condition. It doesn't have to define you. You can define it, by eating right.
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