1.  SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE

Its important to move.  Especially if you have a desk job.  Get up, walk around as much as you can during the day.  Walk for a minimum of 30 minutes a day.  Walking after a meal is especially good because you can reduce you blood sugar between 10%-20%.  Ideally we should try and get in about 10,000 steps a day.

2. UNDER EATING HEALTHY FATS

There are three important macro nutrients.  FATS, CARBS and PROTEIN.   Carbohydrates will give you the highest glucose spike.  But not all carbs are equal, and some carbs cause a higher spike than others.   Protein will only slightly spike blood sugar, but FAT, does not even begin the touch the dial in glucose spikes.  It therefore seems logical that we should eat more healthy fat and protein (Eggs, Avo, Coconut oil, grass fed beef, olive oil – all the healthy, stable fats and protein).  Healthy fats can also act as a support to help regulate blood glucose.

3.  POOR SLEEP

Probably the most important thing to get right when managing blood sugar.  If you are not getting consistent healthy blood sugar readings, look at how you’re sleeping.  One night of less than 7 hours of good sleep have been known to raise higher levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) the next day, rending you with higher blood glucose levels.   When you have high levels of cortisol, you will follow with high levels of glucose, and high levels of insulin.  You also have higher levels of the hunger hormone Ghrelin which is a multifaceted gut hormone that activates the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHS-R), all responsible for high blood sugar.

4.  STRESS

Whether its mental, emotional, physical, managing your stress levels is crucial to better blood sugar.  It’s the quickest way to destroy your immune system and spike glucose, because immediately after you get a flood of cortisol in the blood, your blood sugar spikes.  Something as simple as a negative thought can activate cortisol – that’s how powerful your mind is!!  So, practice kindness, love, gratitude, appreciation.  Its imperative to manage better blood sugars.

5. SNACKING

Even if it’s a “healthy snack” you will have an insulin response.  Every time we eat, we produce insulin, and if you’re insulin resistant (95% of T2 diabetics!) then the insulin won’t work, and glucose from that snack is simply stored as fat in the liver.  If you write down EVERYTHING you eat in a day, you will be shocked.  From the handful of nuts, half the apple, a protein bar, a smoothie, etc., etc., these all lead to an insulin and glucose spike.

6.  NAKED CARBS

Fruit juice, fruit smoothies, cereals… these digest very quickly resulting in a quick blood glucose spike followed by a quick energy crash.  Fruit juices are filled with sugar.  All fruit juices strip away the fibre which helps to slow down sugar absorption. 

7.  SODA AND SWEETENED DRINKS

Soda and sweetened drinks / juices.  This includes anything with artificial sweeteners – especially those with aspartame and sweeteners ending in the letters “OSE” (sucralose, Fructose, etc.).  These are known to spike blood sugar.  Sweetened juices can contain up to the equivalent of 12 teaspoons of sugar in some drinks!  Look for drinks sweetened with Stevia, Monk Fruit or Erythritol.  Always drink more water than juices.

8.  FLOUR

Probably one of the most controversial.  But wheat flour and white flour is highly processed, and all its nutrients are literally stripped away, and creates a high insulin and glucose response when consume.  Whether its Low GI or not, one slice of whole wheat bread, for example, has about 15g carbohydrates!

9.  “HEALTHY CARBS”

Wholegrain bread and oatmeal.  This will spike blood sugar.  Do the meter test.  Two slices of wholegrain bread is known to spike blood sugar as much as a Snickers chocolate bar or a 250ml can of Soda.

10.  INDUSTRIAL SEED OILS  

The most toxic in our food environment!  Signs have shown this to be far worse on the body than sugar, simply because your body can burn away excess sugar, but you can’t burn off the seed oils.  Industrial seed oils are responsible for the death of many healthy cells in the body.   Some experts have shown that the regular consumption of industrial seed oils will increase your likelihood of chronic disease by as much as 80-90%!  These fats are highly processed and oxidized and unstable in the body.  And when heated (to cook), these fats become even more unstable and rancid in the body, causing severe inflammation.  These seed oils are vegetable oils –

Canola oil, Corn oil, Cotton seed oil, Soyabean Oil, Safflower seed oil, Sunflower seed oil, Grape seed oil and rice bran oil.  These oils are known as the “Hateful Eight”