60 Ways to Lower Your Blood Sugar

by Dennis Pollock

  What we are talking about here is a heightened “sugar-consciousness.” Being aware of even those smaller sugar-contributing items will pay dividends in the form of lower numbers on your blood-sugar monitor and your A1C tests. More importantly, they will help in the battle to keep the blood that flows through your body in a healthy, low-sugar state, so that it enhances rather than destroys your long-term prospects for health and longevity.

  47

  Work Your Way Down

  The post-meal blood-sugar reading (usually one to one and a half hours after your last bite of food) really is the ultimate gauge of your success in keeping your blood sugars under control. If you have set a target of 140 or below and are hitting it 90 percent of the time, your fasting blood sugar will almost always be in a decent range, as will your A1C score. Even more important, you will be doing a world of good for your body and making it unlikely you will suffer from diabetic complications, regardless of whether you are classified “prediabetic,” “diabetic,” or “hyper-super-mega diabetic.”

  This is great to contemplate, but it can be daunting when you first give serious thought to blood sugar and discover that your blood sugar never drops below, say, 165 mg/dl. How in the world can you shoot for a 140 or below post-meal reading when your fasting blood sugar is well beyond that? The answer is that you can’t—at least not immediately. If 165 is your baseline before eating, and then you eat a meal, don’t expect that your blood sugar will drop down to 140 an hour later. It will in fact rise. How discouraging is that?

  The good news is that most type 2 diabetics can get their baseline blood sugar into a decent range with a little work. Your fasting blood sugar is not written in stone and impossible to change. In truth, fasting blood sugar is fluid; it is never static. It is always increasing or decreasing a bit, and in most cases you should be able to start it going downward with a little knowledge and effort.

  The philosophy that will win the day here is what I call “calling out the reserves.” This is a military concept—it simply means that you hit the enemy with all you have. No troops left in the rear for later actions. Everything and everyone you have available are thrown into the fray. Obviously you will only do this if you really want to win the battle, but we are assuming that you very much do.

  You begin by taking assessment of yourself on the three different fronts of the diabetes conflict: weight, exercise, and diet.

  Weight. You need to get your weight down to a reasonable level. You will never know just how much territory you can take back if you stay overweight. Start by severely limiting snacks, doing away with second portions at any meal, and weighing yourself daily to check your progress.

  Exercise. Insulin resistance, that inability of the cells to efficiently process carbs/sugars, is normally at the heart of the type 2 diabetic’s problems. You’ll probably never totally eliminate this and get back to your teenage days, but you can make a huge dent in your insulin resistance by doing certain things. And exercise is one of those things! You exercise four to five times weekly in order to make yourself metabolically fit, increase your circulation, and enhance the efficiency of your body’s carb processing. This is something every diabetic should be doing.

  If your blood sugars are hovering around 160 or above many hours after you have eaten, or in the morning after you have slept through the night, you need to take exercise very seriously. The person who has a baseline blood sugar of 160-plus is essentially doing harm to every organ in their body 24 hours a day. You may not feel anything or have any symptoms for a decade or more, but sooner or later it will catch up to you.

  Carb intake. Finally, and most important, you are going to need to seriously cut your carb intake for a couple of months. The Atkins diet talks about an “induction phase” in which you pare down your carbs to the bare minimum. This may be exactly what you need, but for a different reason. Most people who are excited about Atkins have been attracted to it for the purpose of weight loss. In your case you have a far greater motivation for going low-carb: your life. For the next month or maybe two you are going to need to live on salads, various vegetables (no potatoes, corn, beets, or carrots), meats (no bread coatings), one low-carb bread item daily, and small amounts of nuts. Things that should not be a problem later on, such as many fruits, beans, and smaller portions of brown rice, should be avoided during this period.

  You will almost surely lose some weight doing this, and unless you are a type 1 diabetic or approaching this state, you should see your fasting (baseline) blood sugar decreasing gradually but steadily. This is vitally important. The best way to measure success in the blood-sugar battle is to be able to see your post-meal blood sugars peak below the levels which can be harmful (140 to 180 depending upon whom you read—I like 140). But if they are already higher than your target before you ever put that first bite in your mouth, you have no chance of succeeding in this. By taking the steps outlined above you have an excellent chance of getting your baseline blood sugar into the 100 to 120 range, which allows for it to rise after a meal and still be in a decent range.

  Ultimately you have to determine what is acceptable and what is not. Some people can live with a fasting blood sugar of 180 and not feel too bad about it. Their post-meal peaks will always take them well above 200. Because they accept the unacceptable they are doing great damage to their body hour by hour and day by day. Take your fasting blood sugar seriously. Most type 2 diabetics can get it into a healthy range with diet, exercise, and weight control. A one- to two-month “induction phase” dietary regimen is sometimes the kick start they need to get their numbers down. If none of this works, you will need to talk to your doctor about oral medication or insulin shots. But whatever you do, don’t accept the unacceptable!

  48

  Types of Blood-Sugar Tests

  Diabetes and testing go together. And you live in an opportune time. For most of recorded history there were no tests available at all. In the early nineteenth century chemical tests were developed to measure the presence of sugar in the urine. This gave an indication of diabetes but such a test was normally only used after people had developed severe symptoms of the disease and were pretty much beyond all help. In those days you had to go to the doctor to get the test; there were no “home tests.” In the 1960s home tests for blood sugar in the urine became available. In the 1970s blood-glucose meters were developed. Today the blood-glucose meter has become far less expensive and more reliable. There is no good reason for the diabetic or prediabetic not to own one and use it frequently.

  Actually, there are several different tests that are useful for diabetics. You would be wise to make use of all of them. Let me give four of the most important, noting some of the pros and cons.

  The fasting blood-sugar test. This can be done at the doctor’s office, or you can do this yourself at home with your own blood-sugar monitor. The fasting blood-sugar test is done in the morning after you have gone all night without eating or drinking anything but water. What you are measuring here is your baseline blood sugar—what your levels revert to once digestion is accomplished, your pancreas has done its part, and there are no more carbs in your system that haven’t been processed.

  In someone who is healthy and free from diabetic tendencies, the number should be in the 80s (mg/dl). However you can be considerably higher than that and still not be considered diabetic. Not so long ago your fasting blood sugar had to hit 141 mg/dl before you were officially labeled diabetic. In 1998 they changed their minds and declared that 126 mg/dl or above made you a diabetic. There have also been several revisions of what they considered the upper limit of normal, and currently they consider normal to be anything below 100.

  The fasting blood-sugar test is great at identifying people who are diabetic or getting close to it. You cannot fool this test. If you have a major problem in this area, it will surely reveal it. The one negative aspect of the test is that, although it reveals much, it doesn’t quite reveal all. The one category that escapes undetected are the folks w
hose pancreas is still managing to keep the numbers reasonable, but their insulin resistance is so high that this organ is pumping its little guts out to get the job done. This is an unsustainable task, and sooner or later the pancreas will hold up the white flag of surrender, and the numbers will soar.

  There are folks who are going through each day eating far too many carbs and forcing their pancreases to put out way too much insulin. Their bodies are becoming walking time bombs, filled to the gills with insulin, which is doing them tremendous damage in itself—even though their numbers don’t reflect it yet. The doctor checks their blood sugar in the morning; it reads 98, and he tells them they are fine. In fact, they are not fine.

  The post-meal test. This test is a great addition to the fasting blood-sugar test. You do it one to two hours after a meal, and can determine just how radically your body is reacting to the carbs you just ingested. Of course this test will vary tremendously with the type of meal that was eaten. In the initial, discovery phase, this is the one time it might be good to overdo it a bit on carbs. If you can eat a spaghetti dinner, have a couple of rolls along with your spaghetti, and then an hour and a half later find that your blood sugar hasn’t risen higher than 125 or so, you are probably in pretty good shape.

  There will be some folks who have good fasting blood-sugar numbers and yet do awful on this test. What this normally means is that your pancreas is working pretty well. It will eventually dump lots of insulin in your bloodstream and get the job done. In three to four hours you may even find that your blood sugar is quite low (sometimes way too low!). Such sugar swings are bringing you good news and bad news. The good news is that your pancreas is working just fine. The bad news is that you are becoming seriously insulin-resistant. The worse news is that your pancreas and your metabolism will never be able to keep this up. You are a prime candidate for diabetes.

  The A1C test. This test is normally done by a doctor, although there are now some kits you can buy: you take a blood sample, send it to a lab, and get your results in the mail in a couple of weeks. The A1C uses the condition of certain of your red blood cells to measure your average blood sugar over the last three months. The values of this test come in percentages, rather than mg/dl. A percentage of 4 to 5 is normal, 6 to 6.5 percent is problematic, and above 6.5 percent definitely indicates diabetes.

  This test is superior to the fasting blood-sugar test in that it gives you a blood-sugar average. It will not be fooled by random factors that could make one particular fasting blood-sugar test not truly representative. The major negative to this test is that, like the fasting blood-sugar test, it does not reflect increasing insulin resistance until that resistance gets to the point where it is keeping your blood sugars high constantly. If you are having highs and lows, causing your body to be saturated daily with far too much insulin, this test will not know it. It may well show that you are in the “normal” range, and you may go home feeling elated, not realizing that big problems lie just around the bend.

  The glucose-tolerance test. In this test you are required to fast for 8 to 10 hours and are then given a very sweet drink of pure glucose. Your blood is then checked every hour for the next several hours. This test is expensive, time-consuming, and a hassle. It is also very, very good at determining just how well your body processes carbs and sugar. Even if your fasting test and A1C test indicate that you are perfectly normal, if in fact you are becoming insulin-resistant and are losing the ability to handle carbs, this test will reveal it. The test is exactly what it says it is: a glucose-tolerance test. How well does your body tolerate sugar? How quickly does your metabolism get things back under control once you ingest a significant amount of glucose?

  It is in fact a great test. The problem is, because of the cost and the time involved, doctors don’t recommend it often and patients rarely ask for it. By the time a doctor may decide to use it, the patient probably already has such significant symptoms of blood-sugar issues that they hardly need the doctor to tell them they have a problem. If this test were given routinely to every person reaching 40 years of age, and if they could be sufficiently motivated into taking the necessary actions when it reveals they are becoming insulin-resistant, it would save untold misery for millions.

  Of course the “poor man’s” glucose-tolerance test is simply to use your blood-sugar monitor an hour or two after meals for a number of different meals. If, no matter what you eat, your blood sugar never rises above 140 mg/dl, you are in pretty good shape. But if you find it soaring into the 180s or above 200 you know you have some work to do. Time to see your doctor, cut down on the carbs, get to the proper weight, and start a regular exercise program.

  These four tests are of great value in discovering where you are and what steps you need to take in the battle against diabetes. A person who is overweight is probably never going to lose weight without a scale. And a diabetic or prediabetic is likewise not likely to make any progress in getting their blood sugar under control if they simply make a few minor adjustments and “take it by faith” that they are getting the job done. You must measure yourself and take the tests—again and again and again. It is a very small price to pay for a healthy, happy second half of your life.

  49

  Thoughts on Soup

  When I first decided to get really serious about watching my carbs I gave up soup altogether. That was then, this is now. Today, I enjoy many different soups, but mostly of my own creation (actually, my wife’s, with a little input from me). Soup can be problematic for carb-watchers. One of the reasons for this is that soup cannot simply taste like vegetables dropped into a pot of water. For soup to be soup it has to have some sort of thickening agent. Traditionally this has been white flour, which jacks up the carb count. On top of that, many soups contain noodles, which increases the carbs further still. Others contain rice, which does the same. Many canned soups have added significant amounts of sugar to jazz them up.

  Another factor is that almost nobody can eat soup by itself for a meal. The traditional companion to a bowl of soup is a sandwich, which means two slices of bread to add to the carb count. Remember the old Campbell’s Soup commercial, “Soup and sandwich…go together”? (You have to be ancient to remember this—but strangely I do!) Some people add insult to injury by breaking up soda crackers (about as pure a carb source as you’ll find) and putting them in their soup.

  Besides the carbs, most soups contain way too much sodium, which won’t directly affect your blood sugar, but will drive your blood pressure up. All in all, much of the canned soup you find at the store is junk. You can make a lot better choices.

  If you look at many of the soups on your grocery store shelves you’ll find that the carb counts don’t seem too bad. Some say 14 grams, some are as low as 10. But check out the serving size. Nearly all list serving sizes that wouldn’t satisfy a scrawny church mouse. If you have any kind of appetite at all, you can pretty much figure on doubling the carb count that they give.

  This doesn’t mean you have to give up on soup—not at all. There are two choices in the soup department for carb-watchers. First, you can check out some of the soups specifically touted as being healthy. Check the nutrition information to see if their idea of “healthy” means reduced sodium only, or also reduced carbs. But remember that with nearly all store-bought soups, you’ll have to be very moderate in your portion size.

  Another choice is simply to make your own soup. Here is your chance to eat a large bowl of soup and still do very little to your blood sugar. It’s not at all likely that anyone will put a gun to your head and force you to add noodles or rice, or use white flour to thicken it. To my mind homemade is by far the best choice. One simple way to do this is go on the Internet and type these words into your favorite search engine: “low-carb soup recipes.” You’ll soon have enough recipes to last you for a dozen lifetimes.

  Some of the basic rules in making your own soup are these:

  1. Never use flour as a thickening agent. Instead, experiment with some of the
se:

  • Add heavy whipped cream for an interesting and tasty thickener.

  • Remove some of the vegetables from the soup and puree them in the blender. Then add them back to the soup. Voilà!—your soup has gone from watery to thick.

  • One simple way to make soup thicker is simply to cook it longer. Over time two things happen: the vegetables in the soup break down more and mix with the water, and you lose more water through evaporation, making the soup thicker.

  • Try adding a small amount of olive oil or vegetable oil to give the soup a richer and thicker taste.

  • Beans in bean soups break down enough to make their own thickening agent. The longer the beans are cooked or boiled, the more the content of the beans ends up in the soup.

  • Spaghetti sauce can be used sometimes, but don’t feel obligated to empty the entire can into the soup. Use just enough to get the right consistency. Check the labels and make sure to use one that is on the low side in carbs—some spaghetti sauces have a significant amount of added sugar.

  2. No rice or noodles in the soup.

  3. No corn or potatoes in the soup.

  With a little research and experimentation you can quickly come up with some great low-carb soup recipes. For people who don’t like to cook, remember this. Although making soup seems like a significant time expenditure, if you make a fairly big pot of it, you can save it and have soup for the next week or more. You can even freeze some of it and bring it out a month later. What this means is that you have a very quick and easy lunch for quite a few days, so in the end you save time.