Do you believe that choosing low fat menu while on a hypoglycemia diet is rather a sensible approach to nutrition?
If you think so, you got trapped in the outdated nutritional paradigm.
Banning grease has been popular over last two decades, but that only brought us an epidemic of diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, fatty liver, cholesterol issues, and variety of cardiovascular disasters. Hypoglycemia symptoms sufferers have not been spared either.
Hypoglycemia diet must include fats
Hypoglycemia and low fat diets do not go together. In fact a zero-grease menu will aggravate, perpetuate, or even cause hypoglycemia symptoms. Low blood sugar can happen when food gets digested too quickly causing initial sugar spike that is followed by a sugar crash. Slowing down the digestion is one way to prevent sugar crashes.
Fat has an incredible ability to slow down digestion. That’s exactly what you want if you suffer from low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia symptoms can be easily prevented by keeping blood sugar steady. An addition of fatty food to your meal would do just that.
Low fat fails hypoglycemia diet
It is worth knowing that low-fat diets (especially when rich in carbs) are counterproductive for regulating blood sugar. They speed up digestion and accomplish exactly the opposite: erratic blood sugar control.
Low fat version has a substantially higher glycemic index than the fatty version of a specific food. Glycemic index is a number that indicates the speed of digestion, or in other words how quickly sugars are released into the bloodstream.
A meal with high glycemic index foods have been implicated in variety of health problems. They are definitely recommended neither for diabetes nor hypoglycemia, because they promoteblood sugar highs and lows.
Here is an idea: try our blood sugar stabilizing smoothies. Download the chart and post it on your fridge door. Enjoy!
.
Low fat menu is high glycemic
The difference in glycemic index between low and full fat versions can even be demonstrated on milk. Full fat milk has glycemic index of 32, and its low-fat equivalent has a much higher glycemic index of 41. ref
The fear of putting on weight from eating fatty foods is difficult to erase. When you are already overweight and on top of that your hypoglycemic physiology forces you to eat frequently the fear of fat is totally understood.
.
However, despite your fears you may try a fatty menu trick for a week and see if your hypoglycemia symptoms improve.
- Add fat to your meal: organic butter, coconut oil, coconut milk, full fat yogurt, or other source of non-processed fat; For the sake of your future health do not use processed/hydrogenated vegetable oils, oils from GMO crops or margarines.
If your fear of fat is too big or you have trouble digesting fats try a different trick:
- Eat a cup of vegetables before your meal. Vegetables eaten BEFORE meals stabilise blood sugar in both diabetics and non-diabetics
You can combine these tricks for even a better hypoglycemia diet effect.
A cautionary note for weight loss
Although the above dietary tricks will help you reduce or eliminate hypoglycemia symptoms, unless you reduce overall caloric intake of the meal and keep portions small, you should expect neither weight reduction nor any other positive health effect. Reduction of calories does not apply to underweight individuals.
For more hypoglycemia tips go to the following posts:
Rule 4 of 5 – artificial sweeteners
You should know that a large portions of starch and fat combined together in one meal may negatively impact insulin response, so use your judgment when it comes to sizing your meals. Among examples of common fat-starch combination are fries, hamburger on a bun, or cheesecake with a fruit smoothie.
If you already eliminated sugar, sugar substitutions, junk food and processed edibles, now it is time to add some fat into your menu. This will be your best hypoglycemia diet yet: not only greatly satisfying, but also much healthier than the low fat version.
