Raising Your Sugar IQ – Part 1

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Sugar is everywhere these days and many of us have varying degrees of sugar cravings. My friend and colleague, Lynne Stephens, is a health coach who specializes in helping people move beyond their attachments to sugar and embrace healthier eating. I am so very excited for her to share a series of four posts with us this month on the topic of Raising Your Sugar IQ. Enjoy these eye-opening posts and increase your awareness of how to better care for your health in our sugar-saturated culture! Feel free to post comments or questions, and Lynne will respond.

 Blood Sugar 101

It wasn’t that long ago that fat was considered public enemy number one in the health world. So we took fat out of much of our processed food and replaced it with various forms of sugar–to help compensate for the loss in taste. But obesity didn’t decline—it rose. In 1990, the obesity rate in America was 12%. Today it’s almost 35%. Perhaps more concerning is the fact that diabetes diagnoses increased by 50% in 42 of our states from the mid-90’s to 2010. Now we’re pointing the finger at sugar, and it’s time we did. Sugar is “killing us softly.”

The inflammation in our bodies that comes from repeatedly spiking our blood sugar over time is usually silent. We don’t feel it, and our doctor doesn’t mention it at our annual physical. Unless we are diabetic, we live from day to day with little awareness of our blood sugar levels. Most of us would benefit from more knowledge in this area, as it would almost certainly help prevent disease further down the road.

So my aim in these four posts is to raise our sugar I.Q.s—to increase awareness about how sugar negatively impacts our health and to suggest ways to lessen that impact. Our discussion will revolve a lot around the concept of blood sugar, so it makes sense to begin with a brief look at its importance to the body.

Blood sugar is the sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream that is used to make energy by every cell in the body. The body is very invested in keeping blood sugar levels within an optimal range—not too high and not too low. Why? One reason is that glucose is the primary fuel of the brain and is needed to facilitate the movement of nerve impulses there. Brain cells cannot store energy, so it’s important that a steady supply of glucose be made available through what we eat.image

Hormones like insulin and glucagon (both secreted by the pancreas) help to regulate the supply of sugar in the bloodstream. When blood sugar is too high, insulin brings the level down, and when it’s too low, glucagon raises it. In people with diabetes, insulin no longer functions as it should to bring blood sugar levels down when they are too high. If left unchecked, extremely high blood sugar can result in dehydration, coma and death. Similarly, when blood sugar dips too low, it can lead to confusion, fainting, seizures and death.

So it’s clear that regulating the amount of glucose circulating in our bloodstream at all times is crucial to our health. Without this, our brain can’t function properly and our cells can’t make energy. What happens, then, when we choose to eat a lot of sugar in one sitting and spike our blood sugar above healthy levels? Does that hurt us? Or can we trust the insulin/glucagon partnership to keep us in tip-top condition? That’s the topic for next week!

Lynne Stephens is a certified health coach who enjoys helping people break free from sugar-controlled eating to experience new energy and vitality.

You can find her at:  

http://lynnestephenshealthcoach.comimage

 

 


Comments

Raising Your Sugar IQ – Part 1 — 4 Comments

  1. Yes, it is a precious gift from a friend that I keep in my kitchen/dining area! But it’s not usually loaded with sugar cubes. 😉 My friend made it into a candle for me. I love it too.

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