Blood Sugar

By Dodie Anderson

Two out of three Americans are overweight, bloated and carry a spare tire around their middle. These are all symptoms of low blood sugar. So if you want to lose weight – you must keep your blood sugar levels stable.

Your blood sugar is the level of sugar circulating in your blood stream to your cells. If the level drops too low, then your cells are starving to death. If the levels are too high then it is likely that your cells are not getting enough sugar.

Sugar is a friend to all of your cells. It is the fuel that your body can most easily turn into the power for energizing and repairing your body. It must be available to your cells at all times.

What happens when your cells cannot find sugar?  Your cells will become stressed and will send out an urgent message for help. Our body responds by releasing a hormone called adrenaline. Adrenaline helps release fats from storage to be used as energy. I am sure, at this point you are thinking great – I need to lose a few pounds! However this really does not work, because your cells do not like fat as the primary fuel. Fat simply does not produce as much power as sugar. We do burn fat, but it is really just a backup fuel for sugar.

Your body is pretty adamant about preferring sugar to fat, because your body can only use fat for a very short period of time before it becomes very stressed. If your stress hormones rise too high, your body will move from burning fat to converting protein found in your muscles or organs into the sugar it needs.

When the body starts to convert muscle into fuel (sugar), the fat that was released into circulation due to high adrenaline is stored as excess fat around your mid section.

While this is happening, your cells are so stressed from low blood sugar that they start to weaken and allow lots of water to enter. This can cause puffiness and edema, which is not good for your cells because they cannot work well when filled with water. So now you have a spare tire and a puffy face!

Since adrenaline is released when you do not eat regularly – it might be helpful to know a few signs of high levels: abnormal cravings for sweets, afternoons headaches, allergies, waking up a few hours after you fall asleep and not being able to fall back to sleep, bad dreams, chronic fatigue, the need for caffeine and highly emotional are just a few.

So how do you prevent this from happening – eat every 3 to 3.5 hours – do not wait until you feel hungry and weak. Do not be scared of having a little fruit and a fat for a snack – my favorite is in season ripe fruit with an ounce of raw cheese. Sometimes I even have a glass of raw milk for a snack.

Learn to plan and carry food with you.