How Low Blood Sugar Happens #hypoglycemia #lowbloodsugar [1651f1]
2025-07-29
Post Time: 2025-07-29
When it comes to maintaining stable blood sugar levels, what we eat plays a crucial role. Some foods are more likely than others to cause blood glucose spikes that can lead to serious health problems if left unmanaged.
- Refined Sugars: Consuming high amounts of refined sugars found in sweet treats like cakes, cookies, and candy can significantly raise blood sugar levels within 30-60 minutes.
- White Rice and Pasta: These simple carbohydrates are digested quickly by the body, leading to a rapid increase in blood glucose levels.
- Bread Products with Added Sugars: Consuming bread products that contain added sugars like honey or maple syrup can cause an insulin surge and subsequently high blood sugar readings.
- Dried Fruits and Fruit Juices: Dried fruits are concentrated sources of natural sugars, which when consumed in excess can contribute to elevated blood glucose levels.
Sugary Drinks: A Hidden Threat
- Energy Drinks: These drinks contain a mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and stimulants like caffeine that can cause rapid spikes in blood sugar.
- Fruit Flavored Beverages: Fruit juices without pulp have been stripped of fiber but still retain natural sugars leading to increased risk for high glucose levels when consumed excessively.
Other Culprits: Processed Foods
- Processed Snack Food: Most processed snack foods contain added sugars and preservatives that can cause inflammation in the body, affecting blood sugar control.
- Foods High in Sodium: Consuming excessive amounts of sodium has been linked to decreased insulin sensitivity making it harder for glucose levels to stabilize.
Beverages That Can Raise Blood Sugar
- Beer and Cocktails with Added Sugars: These high-calorie drinks are made from grains which quickly turn into blood sugar.
- Sweetened Yogurts and Protein Shakes: Commercial yogurts contain sugars in the form of fructose, galactose or honey leading to spikes in glucose levels when consumed.
Desserts That Can Send Blood Sugar Soaring
- Chocolate-Based Treats: Chocolate contains natural sugar cocoa solids that cause insulin surge upon consumption.
- High-Sugar Baked Goods and Desserts: Pastries like doughnuts, cakes and pies made with added sugars can increase blood glucose in a matter of minutes.
Concluding Tips for Blood Sugar Management
- Read Labels Carefully: Always check the ingredient list to identify foods that contain hidden sources of sugar.
- Focus on Whole Foods: Choose nutrient-dense whole foods rich in fiber, protein and healthy fats which can slow down glucose absorption reducing spikes in blood sugar levels.
Consuming these high-sugar foods regularly can have serious health implications for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes conditions, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease and kidney damage. By being mindful of the food choices made daily and incorporating balanced eating habits into lifestyle routines will help stabilize healthy blood sugar ranges.
Are you feeling like you might have hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar? In this video, we're going to look at some of the signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia and reactive hypoglycemia. We'll look at some of the blood glucose parameters that are typical with hypoglycemia, and maybe some atypical presentations as well, and other things related to hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia, also known as low blood sugar, can present with a variety of different signs and symptoms. It can also vary in intensity. Although high blood sugar is more prevalent among the population, low blood sugar is also common, though this may not be immediately intuitive. When we have high blood sugar, our pancreas senses this and triggers insulin production. Sometimes, the pancreas overproduces insulin. Insulin's job is to take the glucose that's floating around in the blood and put it into cells as quickly as possible so as not to damage the tissues in our bodies. Too much insulin can trigger a low blood sugar or hypoglycemia, and this is called reactive hypoglycemia in some instances. #hypoglycemia #lowbloodsugar So what are the symptoms of low blood sugar or hypoglycemia? Well, things like shakiness and tremors, trembling hands, even quivering voice, sweating and heat sensations throughout the body whether you're sleeping or whether you're just up and about can definitely all be signs of hypoglycemia. Now, usually you're going to have multiple of these symptoms occurring at the same time. As far as the sweating and heat sensations, it could be profuse sweating coming down, or it could just be cold and clammy feeling after the heat sensation, or it can even be a transient hot flash. So women that are going through menopause often have hot flashes and that's more associated with hormones, but they have blood sugar issues. They're going to be more susceptible to that as well. Sometimes blood sugar 6.2 after eating with the low blood sugar, you're also going to have heart palpitations, feeling of your heart beating in your chest, or even a flutter type of sensation in your chest. Intense hunger or a feeling like you need to eat something can also occur. Cravings for sugary foods are also common, but they don't need to be present for your symptoms to be caused by hypoglycemia. From hypoglycemia. We've certainly all heard of the issue of being hangry (hungry and angry at the same time), or irritability, sudden mood changes, nervousness, anxiety, or even panicky feelings out of nowhere. That could be from not eating enough or getting hypoglycemic. Either it's a reactive hypoglycemia or your just blood sugar is too low. Sometimes with that, when you're feeling irritable, angry, and hungry, you may have difficulty concentrating. So you're so hungry that you're not sure what to eat. And there can be a kind of difficulty making decisions in that timeframe. Sometimes there's also weakness, fatigue, and even feeling lightheaded or dizzy with this. It's not uncommon in really severe cases for people to feel like they need to lie down because they're getting dizzy. Nausea is really common, and you may have some aversion to food because you're so nauseous and hypoglycemic that you don't want to eat, even though you know you should. So the more severe the hypoglycemia, the more prominent some of these symptoms will be, and the more severe the symptoms will be overall. Also, of course, the more hypoglycemic you are, the more of the overall symptom list you are likely to present with. In the same way, not everyone will present with the same amount of severity and intensity, but having any of these symptoms should make you at least consider the fact that it could be from low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. And while the low blood sugar itself may not linger that long, the symptoms can actually linger for hours. So how do you know if you have this, and what are some of the signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia? Most would define hypoglycemia as a blood sugar level that is 70 mg per deciliter or less. While this is the standard, it is possible to have these symptoms and problems with a higher blood sugar. Usually, when this occurs, it's because your body is running at a higher blood sugar most of the day. And when it drops below that level, you start to feel off, maybe shaky or heat sensations or some of these other symptoms. One thing I want to emphasize and for you to understand is that when we do blood tests for blood sugar, usually there's a very narrow window that we're looking at—like 10 to 12 hours and in a fasting state. Many people never fast this long throughout their day, except for when they're doing a blood draw. You might, for example, go eight hours of sleep diabetes blood sugar goals within an hour or high blood sugar sleep so of eating breakfast. Maybe you have a snack, maybe you don't have a snack, but within four hours you're eating again, and another four hours later you're eating again.