3045: What to Know About Blood Sugar Spikes by Danielle Omar of Food Confidence on Long-Term Metabolic Health

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[00:00:30] This is Optimal Health Daily. What to Know About Blood Sugar Spikes by Danielle Omar of FoodConfidence.com. And I'm Dr. Neal, your very own personal narrator. Hey there, happy Saturday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or OHD, where I act as your narrator of popular health and fitness blogs and always with a bit of my commentary at the end.

[00:00:52] Now, we have a bunch of shows covering different topics. Just search for Optimal Living Daily in any podcast app to find them. But with that, let's get right to today's article and start optimizing your life. What to Know About Blood Sugar Spikes by Danielle Omar of FoodConfidence.com

[00:01:16] Blood sugar spikes or postprandial hyperglycemia occur when your blood sugar levels or glucose rapidly increase after meals. You might feel foggy, jittery, thirsty, hungry, or sluggish when your glucose levels rapidly spike. Or you could experience some other common blood sugar spike symptoms such as headaches, anxiety, sleep troubles, and cravings for sweets. Or you may feel nothing at all.

[00:01:43] Chronic stress can raise blood sugar levels and contribute to other concerns like weight loss resistance and reduced insulin sensitivity, which we'll touch on. But consuming high glycemic index carbs like sugary beverages, pasta, rice, and refined grains is a much more common cause for many of us. But don't worry, this doesn't mean all carbs are off the table. With a few mealtime hacks, you can minimize the damage and decrease your risk for metabolic dysfunction.

[00:02:13] Let me explain. Why is it important to prevent super high blood sugar spikes? If you're in seemingly good metabolic health, a sudden spike in blood sugar may seem harmless enough.

[00:02:24] However, regular and prolonged blood sugar spikes and crashes can lead to insulin and weight loss resistance, premature aging, cognitive decline, hormonal imbalances, cardiovascular disease, increased oxidative stress and inflammation, and even metabolic syndrome. And here's why I say seemingly good metabolic health.

[00:02:47] A study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests only about 12% of adults, including those of normal weight, are truly metabolically healthy. Factors associated with metabolic health include blood glucose, along with waist circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or HDL cholesterol, also known as the good cholesterol.

[00:03:16] Another study found that even healthy, non-diabetic people experience diabetic-level spikes in blood sugar. And as I mentioned, regular and prolonged glucose spikes put you at risk of becoming weight loss resistant, insulin resistant, and metabolically unhealthy. This is why blood sugar control is so important. Many people are on a path toward metabolic syndrome without even realizing it. Where insulin sensitivity and weight loss resistance come in.

[00:03:45] Let's look at insulin resistance, also known as impaired insulin sensitivity, and its connection to blood sugar spikes and weight loss. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, is responsible for regulating the body's blood sugar levels. The pancreas releases insulin when glucose from the food you eat enters the bloodstream. But when a lot of glucose enters the bloodstream at once, the pancreas releases more insulin than it should.

[00:04:11] When this happens, over and over again, your body stops responding to insulin, and the pancreas produces more insulin to try to keep up. Your body becomes less sensitive to insulin, which is known as insulin resistance, a risk factor for metabolic syndrome, obesity, cardiovascular disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.

[00:04:38] Insulin resistance can also make it much more difficult to lose weight. Elevated insulin and blood sugar levels cause the body to store more fat, making it nearly impossible to shed pounds, even when you're eating well, exercising, and seem to be doing all the right things. This is what we refer to as weight loss resistance. Add ongoing exposure to obesogens into the mix, and losing weight may seem downright impossible.

[00:05:03] By the way, obesogens are those environmental chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system, harm metabolic health, and contribute to weight gain in obesity. Examples of obesogens include bisphenol A, abbreviated BPA, phthalates, atrazine, organotins, and perfluoro-octanoic acid, or PFOA. A few common sources of obesogens include the following. Plastic food containers and disposable water bottles,

[00:05:32] certain pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other personal care products, agricultural pesticides, seafood, household dust, carpet, and nonstick cookware. Chronic stress and poor quality sleep also come into play here, which is why the road to good metabolic health includes getting to the root of the problem, like controlling blood sugar levels, improving insulin sensitivity, reducing stress, sleeping well, exercising daily,

[00:06:01] eliminating exposure to obesogens and other toxic substances, and learning how your unique body responds to the food you eat, including what, when, and how you eat. How to prevent major blood sugar spikes and crashes after eating. Now that you know about the dangers of blood sugar spikes and the symptoms that accompany them, like blurred vision, jitters, and increased hunger, let's talk about prevention. It's totally normal for your blood sugar levels to fluctuate throughout the day,

[00:06:30] but avoiding major glucose spikes is one of the best things you can do for your metabolic health. You don't have to eliminate carbs entirely to prevent the unpleasant and potentially harmful spike symptoms, like mental fogginess, shakiness, sluggishness, and headaches. To reduce your risk of developing insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome over time, it's more effective to control your insulin response and improve your metabolic flexibility. By tapping into your body's unique response to carbs,

[00:07:00] you can still enjoy white rice, bread, pasta, and sugar, potatoes and fries, pizza and pretzels, cookies and brownies, sweetened beverages, and other simple carbohydrates, all without spiking your blood sugar or harming your metabolic health. Here are a few of my popular hacks for preventing major blood sugar spikes and crashes after eating. Drink apple cider vinegar in water before eating carbs. About 20 minutes before eating carb-heavy foods such as pizza or cake,

[00:07:29] drink one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with mother, white wine vinegar, or any other vinegar without added sugars or carbs. Just be sure to dilute the vinegar in water and drink from a straw to protect your teeth. If you forget to drink apple cider vinegar or any other suitable vinegar before eating simple carbs, you'll still prevent huge blood sugar spikes and crashes if you drink apple cider vinegar within 20 minutes of finishing your meal. But please keep in mind that apple cider vinegar gummies

[00:07:59] do not have the same effect as liquid apple cider vinegar. And pair carbs with fats and proteins. To avoid major blood glucose spikes after eating carbohydrates, try pairing carbs with fats and proteins such as nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocados, and hard-boiled eggs. Bonus points if you pair fats and proteins with high-fiber whole grains like oats, spelt, sorghum, farro, quinoa, barley, buckwheat,

[00:08:28] brown rice, and amaranth. You just listened to the post titled What to Know About Blood Sugar Spikes by Danielle Omar of foodconfidence.com And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:58] So today's author, Danielle's tip of apple cider vinegar does have quite a bit of science behind it. Now normally, whenever we eat or drink something other than water, the body converts some of or all of that into sugar. The sugar then gets into our bloodstream where it travels to our brain, our muscles, our organs and so on where it's going to be used for energy or it ends up getting stored. If the sugar just stays in the bloodstream and it never gets to our brain and our muscles, that's where we start to see

[00:10:26] some more serious health problems over time. So again, if apple cider vinegar blocks sugar from getting into the bloodstream in the first place, this may help lower blood sugar overall. Now, I would never recommend someone stop taking their blood sugar-lowering medication, for example, just because they're drinking apple cider vinegar. But if it's something you want to try, the first step would be to find apple cider vinegar that looks cloudy and has that giant blob floating around in it. Today's author, Danielle,

[00:10:55] referred to this as the mother. This giant blob is basically where all of the apple cider vinegar's power comes from. It's what contains those beneficial antioxidants and probiotics. And as Danielle said, it's not a great idea to drink apple cider vinegar or any kind of vinegar straight. Instead, drop one to two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into a tall glass of water and then sip it with a straw. Then, see how you feel. See if sipping apple cider vinegar

[00:11:24] 20 minutes before meals works for you. All right, that'll do it from me for today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening every day. I hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you back here tomorrow where optimal life awaits.