‘WHOA’….you think.
‘I don’t even eat sugar! This doesn’t apply to me.’
But here’s the thing: a sugar crash doesn’t just happen because you ate some sugar.
Therefore, even if you don’t eat the stuff or ever experienced a crash, you should still read this and learn.
Because one day you may need to assist someone who’s having an ‘episode’ of this.
Or it could even happen to you.
SUGAR CRASH.
Feeling faint, wobbly, sick or even outright faint and fall over. A dangerous and serious reaction to your last meal.
Why does this happen?
“A hormone called insulin cannot transport the carbs or sugars into the correct cells.
When things work smoothly, after eating a meal, all nutrients happily march along into your digestive system and get put to good use.
Various ‘workers’ push them around into cells, so your body can use them for energy and other health needs.
However, when you eat the wrong foods or you’ve ended up with ‘broken’ hormone responses to food…things can go incredibly wrong.
Suddenly the carbohydrates from your last meal can’t reach your brain or muscles. Then you can get into trouble.
And other than the wobbly fainting episode, you could also be feeling constantly tired, suffer with foggy brain and turn into a fat storing machine.
Do you carry most of your body fat around your middle? If you answered yes, then this hormonal problem is already happening in your body right now.
HOW TO FIX THIS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SCARED TO EAT THE WRONG THING
Easy peasy. 😎 You just need to choose the right foods on a regular basis.
- Eat low fat meals to ‘clear out’ clogged, fatty cells that currently don’t allow carbs to enter. Their little doors [on a cellular level] are gummed up. After a few weeks of low fat eating, those doors get unclogged and open up again. Low fat plant based eating does this beautifully.
- Each meal or snack needs to contain a combination of nutrients to prevent blood sugar spikes which then is followed by a possible crash. I will show you how to choose wisely below.
- Eat frequent small meals or snacks of the correct foods. This ‘drip-feeds’ the nutrients into your blood stream to prevent a shortage in your muscles or brain.
SUGGESTED COMBINATION OF RIGHT FOODS
Have you heard of low glycaemic carbohydrates, Low GI? Because eating low GI will become part of your answer on how to prevent sugar crashes.
Your carbohydrates must not be of the sort that enters your blood too quickly.
Here is a good list
What makes them enter too quickly? One of the reasons is that they had their fibre removed and are highly processed. Therefore, white rice, white bread, plain crackers, pretzels, sugar, cake, rice cakes, water crackers, bagels, processed cereal, mashed potatoes etc. etc. should be off the list. Crossed off. Gone.
On the list are: Vegetables, fruit, salads (DUH) whole grains like brown rice, whole meal pasta, oats, beans, lentils etc.
Now let’s assemble a weight loss meal. This is a good balance:
- Half your plate should be salads and / or vegetables.
- ¼ of your plate should be a protein rich food like tofu, red kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils
- ¼ of your plate can be carbs such as brown rice, quinoa or whole wheat pasta.
- Add some good fats. ½ a small avocado or a teaspoon of oil or some nuts.
Snacks should also be a bit of a combination as well:
- 2 high fibre crackers with hummus and celery or cherry tomatoes
- Fruit and nuts
- A vegetable soup with some lentils and whole wheat crackers
- A smoothie with a piece of fruit, some spinach leaves, non-dairy milk, 1 teaspoon of nut butter.
Depending on how active you are, your age, etc. the actual weight of the foods will vary. As you can imagine, a large male working on a building site needs more food than a small lady who sits at her office desk all day. But the ‘balance’ or split of the foods should closely resemble my above suggestion for blood sugar control.
Also: do not eat a large amount of carbohydrates on their own. Like just a big bowl of rice or pasta. This too can shoot your blood sugar high up and then crash. Therefore the amounts have to be capped until your cells are ready to behave. This usually takes my clients about 2 to three months. By then the situation is improved and the rules can relax.
Do you have further questions?
Please contact me by email or in my Facebook group.
I’m happy to help.