Would you like to lose weight, but have difficulty avoiding sugary snacks and deserts?
Are you moody and difficult to get along with? Is your energy minimal at best? Do you
feel like falling asleep after a meal? All these problems can be connected to problems
with blood sugar. A good point has been made by Jonathan Wright,M.D. that our bodies
really are not equipped to handle the likes of a bear claw, maple bar or “blizzard”. Why
can’t we have our cake and eat it too?
Let’s take a look at what simple sugar really does to us and how to deal with it. When we
eat sugar, our blood sugar raises in a quick pattern. Since the blood sugar is beyond that
needed for normal functioning, the body tries to put the rest into storage for later use. It
does this by secreting insulin, produced by the pancreas. Insulin tells the cells to “open
the door” and let sugar come in to storage. Unfortunately, some of the receptors on the
doors to our cells have become rusty and don’t hear the message of the insulin. This
stimulates the body to produce even more insulin until a threshold is reached when the
message is “heard” and the door open, sugar goes into storage. Unfortunately, now there
is considerable insulin out there, so the message persists, more and more sugar goes into
storage, and the blood sugar drops. What this means, is that the level of sugar in the
blood (the fuel to maintain the body) is too low, like running a car without gasoline. (Or
electricity). The result is actual lose of adequate functioning in certain brain centers, such
as the upper brain, which deals with complex functions, and decision making. The lower
brain, which is involved with “survival and emotions “takes over. I liken this to a well
behaved gentleman opening the door for people, totally gracious, turning into a “Mr.
Hyde”, pushing people out of the way to get to food, with total loss of manners.
The body interprets a low blood sugar as an emergency, and responds with an increase in
adrenaline. When this happens, the heart races, people can become anxious, sweaty
nervous, and the second adrenal response is cortisol secretion. Essentially the adrenals
are saying,”Hey an emergency is going on out there, let’s store up some food!” Cortisol
stimulates calories to be stored as fat, usually located around the midsection.
Low blood sugar causes bad moods, fatigue, and can awaken you at night with bad
dreams (from your limbic system). This usually occurs at 2-3:00 am. Sound familiar?
One more thing to note in regards to insulin; too much can cause inflammation and
damage to arteries, which stimulates the formation of plaque.
All right, you can see how eating sugary foods may not be the best for you, but darn it, it
is everywhere and tastes so good. There may be some answers for those of you going
through the pain and separation of a maple bar. First of all, there are foods that do not
even require insulin to be processed! Proteins, most veggies, and fats do not require
insulin; therefore, they stabilize your blood sugar. Just think no more ups and downs,
sugar or food cravings, less inflammation and damage to the arteries, more energy, and
weight loss. How can you beat that?
I am recommending patients check into the latest “craze” in the diet recommendations,
which actually is eating as humans did years ago, the way their system was made to
handle foods, the Paleo diet. There are plenty of books on it, but basically it is meat, fish,
poultry, seafood, veggies, nuts and seeds, fresh fruit, the same things you have been
hearing that are so good for you for a long time. The Mediterranean diet is also
commendable.
All right, what about those lovely deserts? I have recently discovered a book called Paleo
Deserts by Jane Barthelemy. WHAT?? How can there be paleo deserts? Jane has taken
the difficult task of finding sugar substitutes to use for even cakes, puddings, pies and
cookies! Many of the recipes are based on using a chicory root product, Just Like Sugar,
which is not a sugar, has fiber, no calories, and may prove to be a great substitute for our
occasional indulgences. I encourage patients to check out Jane’s website,
JanesHealthyKitchem.com for recipes and more information. (It helps if you Like her on
facebook and Like her website. I am sure you will, I feel she is doing some ground
breaking work for the health of many individuals.