Mood issues
Proper fuelling of the brain is important for maintaining our mood too. For some people, low blood sugar can cause people to experience ‘glass half empty’ syndrome. I remember a banking executive who told me he always knew when his blood sugar level was on the slide as he would inexplicably start seeing the world through ‘shit-tinted spectacles’. At least he had a sense of humour about it.
In others, low blood sugar can wind them up like a top. This is partly because it has the ability to activate the body’s stress response and cause surges in hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol that can bring on feelings of anxiety or aggression. Low blood sugar also ramps up the production of a chemical known as ‘glutamate’ in the brain, which can increase our sense of agitation and irritability.
A common danger time for these issues is the end of the day, when someone may return home in a too-hungry state. The chemical imbalances induced here can cause the most insignificant things – be it some apparent untidiness or an ambiguous comment – to trigger a mini-meltdown. If you want to know the simple measure you can take to stop yourself making a right nuisance of yourself when you walk through the door (and perhaps save your relationship, too), read Chapter 3.
Food cravings
When blood sugar levels drop, it’s common for this to induce cravings for foods that replenish sugar quickly into the bloodstream. A lot of people find themselves irresistibly drawn to the vending machine or some stray biscuits in the mid-afternoon. I once heard a delegate refer to this time as ‘Twix o’clock’.
Some people imagine succumbing to such foodstuffs is down to a weak will, lack of self-control, or an inadequate personality. The reality is when someone is finding it difficult to resist something stacked with sugar, the underlying problem is almost always not psychological, but physiological.
Disturbed sleep
Low blood sugar can happen not just in the day, but at night too. Typically, blood sugar levels will fall at around three or four in the morning. Activation of the stress response and rushes of glutamate (see above) do nothing to aid restful sleep. Many individuals will be tripped into wakefulness, and may find it difficult to drop off again until about half an hour before the alarm goes off.
Once rudely awakened in this way, these poor unfortunates usually feel utterly dreadful. And the thought will normally occur to them as to why this level of zombie-like tiredness was not possible a few hours before.
Waking up feeling as if you’ve not really slept at all is obviously not the ideal way to start the day. Again, though, this feature of blood sugar imbalance is quite common, and it affects about half of my patients and clients on at least a semi-regular basis.
Sugar Highs
As we’ve learned, low blood sugar levels are best avoided for those of us seeking to optimize our energy, focus, sleep and eating habits. However, raised blood sugar can be a huge problem too. Spikes in blood sugar are known to provoke changes in the physiology and biochemistry of the body that predispose us to chronic (long-term) illness. Known effects include:
Increased inflammation (a key underlying process in chronic disease including so-called ‘cardiovascular diseases’ such as heart disease and stroke)
Increased oxidative stress (also known as ‘free radical damage’ – another potential driver of chronic health issues such as cardiovascular disease)
Protein glycation (the binding of glucose to proteins in the body, thereby damaging them)
Increased coagulation (essentially, making the blood ‘stickier’ – a risk factor for heart attacks and strokes)
Raised levels of fats known as ‘triglycerides’ in the bloodstream (a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease)
There is compelling evidence that eating foods that are disruptive to blood sugar levels actually causes heart disease.1 One review found that such foodstuffs were associated with up to a doubling in risk.2
Another problem with elevated blood sugar levels relates to insulin: the higher blood sugar levels rise, the more insulin tends to be secreted. This poses others hazards for the body, particularly with regard to weight control.
Insulin: The Fat Controller
Do you remember how insulin stimulates the uptake of glucose into the cells? It does this for fat too. Not only does insulin encourage the uptake of fat into fat cells, it also inhibits fat’s release from them. In fact, insulin is the body’s chief ‘fat storage’ hormone, and taking steps to lower levels of this hormone is a good strategy for those seeking to attain and maintain a healthy weight.
Moreover, lowered insulin levels can help circumvent other problems. If, over many years we secrete relatively high levels of insulin, tissues and organs such as the muscles and brain can eventually become relatively unresponsive to insulin – a situation referred to as ‘insulin resistance’. But if our muscles and brain are not responding properly to insulin, and are not taking up sugar efficiently, they can be starved of fuel. When this happens, physical and mental energies usually suffer, and hunger and food cravings can be triggered too.
With insulin not doing its job properly, blood sugar levels will tend to be on the high side, causing the body to secrete more insulin in an effort to keep sugar in check. Remember, though, insulin drives fat storage – so the more insulin we secrete, generally the harder it is to maintain a healthy weight.
Ultimately, the body may become so unresponsive to insulin that sugar levels remain elevated no matter how much insulin is secreted and a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes may be made. Gluts of sugar and surges of insulin may also eventually cause the cells in the pancreas that make insulin to ‘burn out’, eventually causing levels of this hormone to fall. Some researchers have suggested that inadequate levels of poorly functioning insulin (what some are calling ‘type 3 diabetes’) is a significant underlying cause of Alzheimer’s disease.3
In Part 2 of this chapter we’re going to be looking at other important nutritional factors that can impact on our long-term health and sustainability, including the different forms of fat in the diet. However, at this stage, what is clear is that if we want a long, healthy, energized and productive life, it pays to have decent control over blood sugar levels. So, what to do?
On Balance
There are two main considerations if we’re looking to optimize blood sugar levels: when we eat, and what we eat.
The timing of eating can be important because irregular eating can lead to us consuming too little at some times and too much at others. Imagine skipping breakfast, having a snatched sandwich at lunch, and then getting so hungry by the evening that you proceed to eat about half your weight in food washed down with some wine or beer. Irrespective of what you eat, this sort of pattern of eating is far from ideal for blood sugar stability.
Some smoothing out of the eating pattern can be important for some people. This does not necessarily mean eating strictly by the clock or perpetually grazing through the day, but it does generally require eating regularly enough to be able to quell any drive for eating big meals. In Chapter 3 we’ll be exploring eating patterns in more depth.
In this chapter, though, we’re going to focus mainly