Balanced Blood Sugar

Like digestion, your blood sugar has a huge impact on your overall health. Yet it’s not something we talk about very often. Unfortunately, when you experience blood sugar dysregulation, this can lead to a host of different health issues. According to the CDC, more than one-third of Americans have symptoms that match metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is linked to insulin resistance, which unfortunately is a precursor to type two diabetes. “Insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas that helps sugar enter your cells to be used as fuel. In people with insulin resistance, cells don’t respond normally to insulin and glucose can’t enter the cells as easily. As a result, your blood sugar levels rise even as your body churns out more and more insulin to try to lower your blood sugar.” 2.

Glucose, when your body is properly functioning, is converted into ATP – energy for the body. So yes we do need naturally occurring sugars! But everyone is bioindividual and there is an ideal amount we each need. Excess glucose is stored in our livers as glycogen. But there is a limit to how much our bodies can store and this will change based on our size and metabolism. When our glycogen stores are full, excess glucose is stored as triglycerides (fat).

Our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) controls our blood sugar in tandem with our pancreas, adrenal glands, adipose tissue, liver, and muscle. This is why it’s not only food that affects our blood sugar levels, but also our environment, stress levels, mood, and emotions. Insulin, a hormone produced from the pancreas, helps our body store access glucose in our muscle tissue, fat tissue, and liver when our blood sugar gets too high. When our blood sugar falls too low, glucagon, a hormone released in the pancreas, helps our liver, muscle, and fat tissue release glucose back into the bloodstream.

With easy access to highly palatable foods, high-stress lifestyles, and more toxic chemicals than we’ve ever been exposed to before, it’s no wonder so many people struggle with blood sugar dysregulation today. All of these lead to an unhealthy rise and crash in blood sugar, which cycles throughout our day.

When we start our days with high sugar meals (i.e. cereal, baked goods, juice, coffee), the stress of waking up, and rushing to get out of the house, we’re releasing a high amount of glucose into the body. The pancreas releases insulin to help compensate, but our bodies can pump out too much insulin causing a blood sugar crash. This often leads us to reach for quick energy in the form of more processed sugars and caffeine. Our pancreas will release more glucagon to help raise the blood sugar again. If the glucagon isn’t enough to raise our blood sugar, we enter the fight or flight mode. Cortisol and epinephrine are released to assist in raising blood sugar. When this cycle goes on and on, we’re left hungry, weak, and unsatisfied. This chronic up and down is causing a lot of stress on our entire body and is what leads to the host of issues we are experiencing today.