Every time we eat a meal, the different foods we choose can
either increase biological chemical stress in the body or decrease the
stress in the body. When it comes to reducing biological and chemical stress in the body, the question we want to ask is, what are the most minor, most straightforward, gentlest changes we can make that have the most significant positive impact? And one of the answers to that question is balancing blood sugar. So, what is blood sugar? Why is it
essential to keep it balanced?
When we say "blood sugar," we're not talking about the actual table sugar
you would put in baked goods. The blood sugar we're referring to is the glucose concentration in the blood. Glucose is known as a simple sugar, and it's the body's preferred energy source. It's essential to keep blood sugar balanced because when there's too much glucose or too little glucose in the blood, it triggers a significant stress response. What's essential for us to know, as health and life coaches-- because this affects mood as much as it does the body-- is what happens once glucose enters the bloodstream and how it can lead to stress.
To fully understand this process, let's look step by step at how food turns
body to benefit from all the food's nutrients. When the body needs energy, you feel hungry. And it's going to release a hormone called "ghrelin." That signals you-- that hunger-- to begin to look for nourishment, signals you to eat. You eat some food, it goes into your mouth, and this is where the digestive process starts. It starts in the mouth as you chew your food. Your saliva contains enzymes to begin breaking down starches and fats.
Once the food is in the stomach, the food is churned by the muscles in the
stomach to break it further down, and the food is introduced to stomach acid-
- hydrochloric acid-- and several enzymes-- pepsin and lipase-- to break down
the proteins and fat. Before food leaves the stomach, it's in a liquid state called "chyme."
Next, it goes to the small intestine, and the gallbladder releases bile to help
break down fats. Bile, you can think of soap detergent on a pan that has something sticking to it, and the soap helps loosen the fats on the pan. Well, that's what bile does. It helps break down fat. Then, your pancreas releases additional enzymes to break down starch, fat, and protein, and glucose is absorbed across the intestinal wall and into the
bloodstream. The bloodstream is the delivery system that carries glucose
to all your cells. Then, the next stop for your food is the large intestine,
so any food that couldn't be digested or absorbed moves into the large
intestine to be eliminated. And excess water is also absorbed there.
Just because you have glucose in your bloodstream doesn't mean you utilize it. Challenges arise because frequent or extended periods can lead to health challenges, such as damaging nerves, blood vessels, and organs. It can lead to diabetes.
Your ability to utilize blood sugar and not have it roaming about is
determined, in large part, by the hormone insulin. So, insulin is released when sugar levels, or blood glucose, increase and act like the key to your
cells. It opens the door to the cell, allowing the glucose, the body's preferred
energy source, to move into the cell, where it will eventually be converted into
energy through a process called "glycolysis." Your body's production of insulin is affected by your consumption of carbohydrates. You may recall that carbohydrates are a macronutrient whose primary function is to provide energy for the body, especially the brain
and the nervous system. And there are three kinds of carbohydrates-- simple,
complex, and fiber. And they each have a very different effect on the body.
Let's look at simple carbohydrates. They're a simple chemical structure one
to two units long, and so they're digested and absorbed quickly, hence the
term "simple carbohydrates." And they provide a quick burst of energy followed by a crash.
Examples of simple carbohydrates are glucose, as we've mentioned;
lactose, a milk sugar; and fructose, which is found primarily in honey
and fruit; maltose, also produced by the breakdown of starches. Fructose and maltose both break down very quickly in the body.
Crates are sugars that take longer to break down, which is healthy for your body. They are generally full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber to help manage the release of sugar. So, complex carbohydrates are like a slow and steady burn compared to simple carbohydrates, like a flash fire.
Complex carbohydrates include brown rice, millet, quinoa,
and vegetables. Complex carbohydrates are great because they don't
drastically spike blood sugar levels. And it doesn't mean
you only have to eat complex carbs, and all simple carbohydrates should be
avoided. However, there is a straightforward carbohydrate that does wreak havoc on the
system, and we want to build awareness around it for ourselves and our
clients when working with them. And if you guess that that simple
carbohydrate is processed sugars, then you're correct. So, let's talk about
processed sugars.
We want to understand that perhaps sugar dominates our food supply. It's in
crackers, soda, cakes, bread, ketchup, juice, salad dressing, tomato sauce,
gum, and even toothpaste. It's everywhere. You can check out all the
names for "sugar" on food labels in the handout below this video. It has a lot
of disguises, all these random names, but the best known is "white table
sugar." That's the refined sugar coming from sugar cane or sugar beet
plants.
In sugar processing, manufacturers take a cane or beet plant and strip it.
It contains all the fiber, vitamins, and minerals, removing all the healthy stuff we would want. And then what happens in sugar production is that you're left with a beet plant or cane plant that's been turned into a white powder that's either genetically modified or covered in unsafe herbicide. So, what happens when you put this into your body? Well, it no longer contains vitamins, minerals, or fiber, so your body has to pull on its reserves to
process this food.
Now, our friends, the complex carbs, can also be processed or refined, and
they, too, can lose their natural vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Then, they
also deplete the body of its vitamins and mineral reserves to break
them down. An example of that is taking whole wheat and turning it into a4
bagel. So, the grain has to go through a refining process that strips the
grain of fiber and nutrients, and it's turned into flour with all of the complex
elements removed, and then it becomes a simple, refined carbohydrate.
You're depleted and deficient if you consume all kinds of processed and refined simple
carbohydrates more than if you eat nutrient-dense foods. All
this can lead to many health problems that we'll discuss soon. But
most importantly, you want to understand that that throws your body
into this experience of a roller coaster with your energy and mood.
When you eat simple carbohydrates, the body breaks them down
fast, they enter the bloodstream in a rush, and they cause a sudden increase in
blood sugar, bringing you to the top of a roller-coaster. And at the top
of this roller-coaster, your glucose levels have risen. Your body's alerted to
release insulin to help get that blood sugar into your body
and bring you back into balance.
The pancreas is secreting insulin to bring the blood sugar back down, but,
sometimes, we've spent a lifetime eating bagels, crackers, and white
bread, and a lot of processed carbohydrates-- I mean, I grew up on that stuff--
so your body is doing its job almost too well, and when it sends the insulin
out, it just may not bring your blood sugar back down to stable. It might send
out too much insulin and then have you drop and have the blood sugar drop
way down.
You're up here at the top of that roller-coaster, and then too much insulin,
and whom-- blood sugar dips way down. And that's when you can
experience a blood-sugar crash. And that's that spacey, shaky, uncomfortable
feeling. When you're down in that crash, what will your body crave? Well, it will want the fastest energy source possible to get back into balance as fast as possible so that it will crave more sugar. So we'll then return on the roller-coaster. Then, too
much insulin is released, and then we crash down. And then it just goes up and
down, and up and down, and the cycle continues.
It's one of the reasons we start eating sugar, and it's tough to stop
because your body is trying to get to a point where the blood sugar is
balanced. It's trying, but that's not working.
That rollercoaster causes enormous biological and chemical stress on the
body because it constantly initiates and keeps the body in a stressful
response. Whether you're at the top or the bottom, your body's
going to emergency, emergency, emergency. We need a fix. So, the body
constantly feels like it's in danger, mainly because this happens so quickly.
The stress response is activated continuously, destroying good health.
What would be a helpful tool for you and your clients is to tell
where you are on that blood-sugar roller-coaster without having to test your blood sugar. You have a couple of physical cues that let you know whether you're on the lower or higher end.
Blood sugar lows-- you may experience brain fog, difficulty concentrating,
impatience, nervousness, heart palpitations, sweating, light-headedness,
nausea, fatigue, or moodiness. And then, when you are having a blood-sugar high, you might experience a feeling of a surge of energy bouncing off the walls. You might get
hyper-anxious, you might have increased thirst, and you might have headaches.
And then keep in mind, whether you're at a high or low, there are a few other
physiological complications here: this isn't just physical. This
affects your mood. So, the brain runs on glucose, right?
This up and down can mess with serotonin levels. At the high, you
feel great. At the low, you feel horrible. And you can go back and forth and
have these like uneven moods and not know why, and it's because the blood
sugar's all over the place. And then, of course, this can be a real culprit in weight gain because glucose can go into your cells, liver, muscle cells,
and brain. If all those receptors are complete, then glucose starts to
be stored as excess fat. If you're constantly producing insulin, you're constantly on the roller-coaster. Your body can't produce the hormone glucagon, which is a hormone
that's going to help you burn excess glucose that's stored in your fat cells. So,
the blood-sugar roller-coaster is causing the body a ton of stress, but it's also
keeping weight on and keeping you from ever burning the excess off.
Suppose you're eating sugar regularly, deliberately, or in hidden foods. In that case, you are on a biochemical and emotional roller-coaster that's likely putting your body into
a continual stress-response state, where weight gain, low energy, moodiness,
and poor health can develop. And honestly, it's challenging sometimes to
know how much sugar you're eating because it's in so many processed foods.
And it tastes good. I mean, we want to have sweets. This is not about never
eating sugar again. This is about understanding how I can enjoy food that I
like but keep it balanced so that it's not taking my body off into this crazy
roller-coaster of stress.
Balancing blood sugar for yourself is one of the most important things you can do to reduce that biological and chemical stress so the body can heal, rebuild, have energy again, and get back to its average weight. This will help solve so many health challenges you may be experiencing. You will fall in love with yourself and become raving fans because it's pretty simple once you know how to do it.
That's the thing that's so frustrating about how we're bombarded
with nutrition information. It's just so much simpler. And the
hard part is not learning what to do, which you're about to necessarily. The
hard part is doing it. But this is where Coach Carey will come alongside you to help and hold you accountable.
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