Blood Sugar Levels

GI (Glycemic Index) is a number given to all starchy foods. The number represents the relative rise in blood sugar levels 2 hours after consuming these foods. I must admit, I never really paid much attention to GI levels until the last couple of years. I’ve never had a particularly sweet tooth, save for the odd chocolate digestive, so never saw the significance. I am not a lover of snack foods, I tend to gravitate more toward meals. I’d rather eat four meals a day and no snacks, than three meals topped up with cakes and puddings. So why the sudden interest in GI levels? Or more importantly why am I now so obsessed with how to manage blood sugar levels? And what relevance does it have to healthy living in general?

GI (Glycemic Index) is a number given to all starchy foods. The number represents the relative rise in blood sugar levels 2 hours after consuming these foods. I must admit, I never really paid much attention to GI levels until the last couple of years. I’ve never had a particularly sweet tooth, save for the odd chocolate digestive, so never saw the significance. I am not a lover of snack foods, I tend to gravitate more toward meals. I’d rather eat four meals a day and no snacks, than three meals topped up with cakes and puddings. So why the sudden interest in GI levels? Or more importantly why am I now so obsessed with how to manage blood sugar levels? And what relevance does it have to healthy living in general?

When Did I Become Obsessed With GI?

It all started when my wife got pregnant four years ago. She was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes (GD). GD can often be a precursor to Type-2 Diabetes further down the line, but during pregnancy it affects the mother and baby and can be quite a significant health risk if not managed effectively.

So after finding this all out four years ago, we left the hospital with booklet-upon-booklet of information and advice. At this point I should explain that my wife can become quite obsessive about things – this will actually come in handy later on.

The advice from the maternity ward was as follows:

  • Test blood sugar level first thing in the morning.
  • Test blood sugar level 1 hour after every meal.

The advice was to minimise processed carbohydrates (stay off the chocolates!), but to eat normally as a generally ‘healthy’ diet shouldn’t have any major impact on blood sugars.

My Wife The Obsessive…

However, as mentioned earlier, my wife can become rather obsessed with things. She started to do her own research into blood sugar levels and found that much of the advice she had been given by the NHS may have been out of date. Much of the advice given was based on old research that showed that eating a bowl of porridge oats for breakfast, wouldn’t raise blood sugar levels to any major extent when tested an hour later.

So sure enough, she ate oats or unnamed wheat based biscuit like cereals for breakfast (as advised) and tested an hour later. It seemed like the NHS advice was fine, her blood sugars had not spiked to any major extent. So what was the problem?

Well further obsessiveness with blood sugar levels highlighted that between zero hour and the hour later when she tested, she may have had a sugar spike. This spike was then followed by a crash, which came near to the testing time. Because of this, the levels never looked high when they were taken. Further investigation was needed.

Let’s Investigate…

To see what was really happening, my wife began testing her blood sugar levels before a meal. This measurement would show the level she was sitting at and whether her levels were low enough to eat a full meal. This would help to avoid spiking too high. She then took her levels every 15 minutes after a carbohydrate based meal, like morning cereals! When doing this we were able to see that after morning cereals, her blood sugar WAS spiking, but was settling again an hour after eating it. This is what she had read could happen and was in direct contradiction to the advice she had been given by the hospital.

It was then that we realised we needed to manage this more effectively and investigate what was safe to eat and what wasn’t. What we found was that a low-carb, or even ketogenic diet was going to provide the best management of blood sugar levels. It seemed that many carbohydrates thought safe were in fact not. And even those that were safe needed to be managed well.

We did our research and found a support page on Facebook, with accompanying website – Gestational Diabetes UK – for those that are interested. This had been set up independently after others had found the same issues with health service advice. We started to do our own research into food pairing and how to manage blood sugar levels effectively.

Managing Blood Sugar Levels…

High GI Foods - Managing Blood Sugar Levels

I’m not going to start going on about the benefits of ketogenic diets, as if I’m honest I think they probably throw up just as many problems as they help to solve. However, we were able to open our eyes to what a truly ‘balanced’ diet is.

After some further research, we discovered that blood sugar levels could be managed by a process called ‘food pairing’. This is where some of the keto based stuff comes in. If my wife ate something containing sugar, by which we mean ANY carbohydrates, she could balance this out by eating fats and protein.

An example of this might be those oats for breakfast. Rather than having them with milk as a porridge breakfast, she could pair them with full fat, natural yogurt. This process mitigated the risk of blood sugar spikes, effectively managing her blood sugar levels.

The Glycemic Index:

The following lists show the range of values for various foods. It is quite eye-opening to see the score of some foods you may not even consider high GI.

High GI (70>):
  • Most cereals
  • White bread
  • Biscuits
  • Crackers
  • Pasta
  • Rice cakes
  • White potatoes
  • White rice
Medium GI (56-69):
  • Whole grains
  • Basmati rice
  • Brown rice
  • Pita bread
  • Chickpeas
  • Couscous
  • Rye bread
Low GI (<55):
  • Lentils
  • Quinoa
  • Muesli
  • Ezekiel bread
  • Barley
  • Legumes
  • Sweet potato
  • Yams

The above gives an overview of some foods and where they sit on the Glycemic Index. Obviously fruits also appear, but their GI score can often depend on how ripe they are. For example, bananas are low/medium when green/yellow, but are high when they start to blacken. And obviously foods containing no, or very few carbohydrates, such as meats are incredibly low and help to balance out higher foods. Remember, pairing foods with a higher GI score, with foods high in fats and protein is how to manage blood sugar levels.

What About Going Sugar Free?

There’s no healthy way to go fully sugar free. Many people think of sugar as refined cane sugar, which isn’t helped by the information on food packets. You know when you read ‘Carbohydrates, of which sugar’, it’s false information. ALL carbohydrates are sugar. The only difference is some take longer to break down, ie unprocessed sugars, such as the carbohydrates found in those oats. We can’t cut out sugars completely because that would mean no fruit and veg. These are vital to provide us with vitamins and minerals, as well as balancing out our bodies pH levels when we eat protein.

But Sugar Free Snacks Are Cool Right..?

So, many products nowadays, boast about being sugar free. Every high end soft drink manufacturer has a huge variety of sugar free alternatives available. Now these are absolutely fine if you are worried about calories. A can of diet soft drink will contain very few, if any calories, compared to the original drink. However when managing blood sugar levels these drinks can actually be worse!

You’re probably thinking I’ve gone insane. How can a drink containing no sugar raise your blood sugar more than a drink packed full of it?! Well the answer is that many artificial sweeteners look and act like sugar when they interact with enzymes in the body. This means that the body responds in exactly the same way as it would to break down sugar! So, although you aren’t taking on any calories and storing sugar in your glycogen stores, your body is reacting as if sugar is there.

Many sweeteners are safe and natural and actually have a very low GI score. However, many are even higher than sugar itself! Check out the following list to see the GI scores for many common sugars and sweeteners. Have a look and see which ones are in the sugar free drinks and snacks you have in the cupboard!

GI Scores For Common Sweeteners:
  • Maltodextrin – 110
  • Glucose – 100
  • Caramel – 60
  • Golden syrup – 60
  • Maple syrup – 54
  • Honey – 50
  • Lactose – 45
  • Fructose – 25
  • Acesulfame K – 0
  • Aspartame – 0
  • Saccharin – 0
  • Sucralose – 0

You may notice that maltodextrin is common in many sugar free or ‘low-GI’ foods. It is common in low sugar ice creams and even protein shakes! So watch out next time you think your low sugar alternative is a good idea!

Finally…

Hopefully I’ve opened your eyes a little to how much of a challenge it can be to manage blood sugar levels. If you suffer with diabetes, or are in the process of managing your levels to prevent it in future, take heed. Don’t be tempted to follow advice that may be outdated and potentially just wrong. Find out what works for you! Test your blood sugar levels regularly and make sure you keep yourself fit and healthy. Remember, going for a walk directly after eating will help to manage blood sugar levels. Also try going for a run first thing in the morning, before breakfast. This has been shown to be a great way to keep those fasting levels moderated.

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