It could be more difficult for you to control your blood sugar (glucose) levels around lunch if you have diabetes.
Your blood sugar will be higher after a meal or snack and may remain higher for up to two hours afterward. You might feel lightheaded, have trouble concentrating or thinking, be extremely exhausted, or be thirsty. Perhaps you also have a headache.
High blood sugar levels can potentially cause you to lose consciousness. Long-term problems like heart or renal illness, neurological damage, and high blood sugar can all result from persistently high blood sugar. Here, in this article, we are sharing some tips to check the post meal sugar spike.
What Causes Blood Sugar To Spike After Meal?
Numerous factors might cause daily increases (or decreases) in blood sugar. The most important of those is food.
Simple carbohydrates, such as sugary drinks or sweets, are quickly digested and absorbed, which causes blood sugar levels to rise more than they would in a meal that also contains protein and high-fiber carbohydrates. Together, protein, fat, and fibre will slow digestion, resulting in fewer abrupt jumps in blood sugar or even an increase that is stable.
It’s also crucial to understand that not all carbohydrates are created equally. As a result, some foods, such as soluble fibre-rich beans and oats, can help regulate blood sugar, and studies have also shown that strawberries and wild blueberries can reduce insulin resistance.
However, since every body is unique, remember that this is simply a basic guideline. For a few weeks, it’s a good idea to check your blood sugar levels after meals to better understand how your body reacts to different foods.
Tips To Control A Post-Meal Blood Sugar Spike
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Here are some tips for post-meal activities that you should avoid because your blood sugar will probably increase. These techniques can assist you in avoiding greater grades and concentrating on upholding steadiness and controlling levels.
Avoid lying down immediately after meal
After a long day at work and a nice lunch, you might want to curl up on the couch and watch TV, but you should fight the impulse.
Because you are inactive and your muscles aren’t burning off the extra glucose in your system, lying down or sitting on the sofa after eating will probably make your blood sugar worse.
Additionally, it is a typical GERD trigger, so be cautious if you frequently get indigestion after eating, particularly if the meal contained a trigger food, like acidic tomato sauce on pizza or pasta. Before crawling beneath the covers, wait a little while.
Avoid skipping breakfast
You shouldn’t only be concerned about dinner. All meals and snacks have the potential to increase blood sugar, but the first meal of the day, or the absence thereof, can significantly affect how your blood sugar behaves throughout the remainder of the day.
Skipping breakfast can have an impact on your blood sugar levels later in the day. According to some studies, people who skip breakfast experience higher post-meal blood sugar levels after lunch and dinner. Breakfast should contain at least 20 grams of protein, complex carbohydrates, and heart-healthy fats in order to be balanced.
Don’t skimp on your sleep
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For overall health and welfare, but especially for blood sugar control, getting adequate sleep at night is essential. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that one short or disrupted night of sleep won’t have a negative impact, but that getting too little sleep on a regular basis won’t result in a blood sugar imbalance.
We should sleep for seven to nine hours per night, and skipping out on restful sleep can cause stress hormones to be released, which raise blood sugar levels.
Additionally, stress is bad in general and can cause a variety of problems, including an increase in appetites, moodiness, physical pain, GI distress, and a higher risk of disease.
After you eat, take a stroll
There is something you can do to assist your blood sugar levels after a meal in addition to staying off the couch. Put on your sneakers and take a stroll to further regulate your blood sugar. As an extra bonus, you’ll even burn some of those calories while walking. After eating, going for a walk will reduce the rise in blood sugar since your muscles will use the glucose for energy.
It doesn’t have to be long—10 to 20 minutes will do—but it helps to get outside for some fresh air and exposure to nature, which may improve your mood and help you relax.
Eat most of your calories in the morning
Although many people consider dinner to be the largest meal of the day, if you have high blood sugar, you should change your perspective. Additionally, avoid “saving” calories for a large meal.
Because our bodies operate on a circadian rhythm, eating more of your daily caloric intake earlier in the day can lower blood sugar levels. It has been demonstrated that those who eat larger breakfasts and lunches and smaller dinners have better blood sugar control than those who consume the same number of calories in the evening.
Additionally, if you cram everything into dinner later in the evening, especially if you eat it close to bedtime, your stomach may feel excessively full and GI irritation may keep you from getting a good night’s sleep.
Eat fiber-rich foods at meals and snacks
Because there is no fibre to keep blood sugar levels steady or to slow digestion, when you eat foods made from refined white flour, such as pizza crusts, spaghetti, or crackers, your body is solely consuming carbohydrates and sugars and will suffer more pronounced blood sugar spikes.
Concentrate on fiber-rich foods to control the spike in blood sugar that occurs after meals and to support intestinal health.
In fact, consuming meals high in fibre and low in sugar will assist your body produce gut-healthy bacteria, which can further aid to balance blood sugar while maintaining a normal digestive tract. Fruits and vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grains, and other fortified cereals are examples of high-fiber foods.
