How certain lifestyle factors could be driving your blood sugar dysregulation.

Blood sugar regulation is actually not just about what you eat. When you also support it with lifestyle changes, it can really make all the difference.

The state that you are in when you eat will heavily influence the speed at which your body releases the sugars into your blood stream.

So what do I mean by the state?

You may have heard of the ‘fight or flight’ (sympathetic) and the ‘rest and digest’ (parasympathetic) states? Our bodies prioritise certain jobs, depending on which state we are in at the time.

So the relevance to blood sugar balance is that when we are in ‘flight or fight’ state, our bodies think we are under attack and need to fight or run away. Therefore, they immediately release any blood sugars from the foods we have consumed to optimise our ability to do this.

So if we eat when we are stressed, our bodies are primed to release the blood sugars from our food immediately, resulting in significant inflammation, particularly if we have consumed a high level of sugars.

This is why ensuring we are in a relaxed state before eating is so important when we are trying to reduce inflammation. Addressing chronic stress is a big part of the picture.

Movement also helps to regulate blood sugar control and can partially mitigate the negative effects of any excess sugars in our bloodstream. So ensuring we move frequently, particularly just before or soon after eating, can make a big difference.

The timing of when we eat is also key. Our bodies regulate our blood sugar levels much more easily during the day. Eating sugary foods in the evening has a much more inflammatory effect.

Leaving gaps between our meals, particularly ensuring at least a 12 hour overnight fast, stimulates a mechanism that promotes good blood sugar control. So this further supports the idea that we limit our eating to meal times only.

Our gut microbiomes play a huge role in regulating our blood sugar levels. Maintaining a healthy gut microbiome is not just about eating a diverse range of plant foods and avoiding sugar and other toxins. You can actually improve it by increasing the plants you can into contact with in other ways, such as gardening. Your microbiome reflects your environment, so taking care to limit toxins from cleaning products and toiletries, and increasing the time you spend in nature, can also contribute to regulating your blood sugars.

Finally, there is an enormous weight of evidence to show that sleeping soundly each night also improves our ability to regulate our blood sugar levels. Conversely, poor blood sugar control can actually be detrimental to sleep quality. So if you are sleeping poorly but not sure how to help yourself, following the measures above to regulate your blood sugar levels during the day may be a good place to start, as this can actually help you to sleep more soundly at night.

Read my earlier post on how to adjust your eating habits to help balance your blood sugar.

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