Blood Sugar Rocket: How different foods impact your blood glucose
A simple visual to understand how five food groups impact blood sugars.
Understanding how different foods affect your blood sugar can be challenging, especially if you are stuck in thinking that there are 'good and bad' foods. In this article, discover how your diet impacts your blood sugars by comparing it to a rocket.
Changing some aspects of your foods can improve your overall blood glucose response. In the image below, you will see 5 Rockets. Each rocket represents how your blood sugars change when you eat these foods.
Let's start with foods that are simple carbohydrates. The fares listed can give you a good idea of what I am referring to. For example, soda, flavored coffees such as Coffee Coolatta contain carbohydrates without fiber. Some additional examples are apple sauce, canned fruit, juice, jelly beans, honey, and sugar. White rice, pasta, and bread refer to foods that contain less than 3 grams of fiber per serving. Below is a food label image that shows a product with 4 grams of fiber. This product (which is not listed) would be considered a good source of fiber because it contains more than 3 grams of fiber.
Fiber-containing foods have a slightly different impact on blood glucose. See how the rocket is going at a slight angle. Switching to brown rice, whole grain pasta, and bread changes the rocket's rise. It isn't a lot by itself, but it can be significant because you may not eat a single item.
Where to find fiber
Whole fruits, specifically fruits that you eat the skin, like pears, plums, peaches, grapes, and apples, are fiber-rich. Fruit contains seeds, including kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are also fiber-rich.
Fruits that have fibrous membranes are also fiber-rich. These include citrus fruits, like oranges, clementines, and grapefruits. There is fiber in pineapple, papaya, and mangos.
When the skin is removed, it is lower in fiber, and some examples include bananas and melons. Canned fruits such as peaches, pears, and apple sauce have had the skins removed and are lower in fiber.
Protein
Don’t despair if these lower-fiber fruits are important to your diet. Just keep reading! Ask yourself if pairing lower-fiber foods with another food group, like protein or plant-based fat, sounds yummy. For example, applesauce, cottage cheese, sliced bananas, and Greek yogurt would be lower-fiber fruits paired with higher protein food. Protein foods include cottage cheese, cheese, eggs, meat, fish, and tofu.
Some foods contain both protein and carbohydrates. Examples include beans, hummus, milk, kefir, and yogurt. Greek yogurt has a lot of protein, equivalent to three ounces of meat. Learn how to check the label without getting triggered.
Plant-based fats and low-carbohydrate vegetables
Fats from plants include margarine (not butter), oil, nuts, salad dressing, chia, flax, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds. This food group also blunt blood glucose. Plant-based fats are not associated with heart disease, which is great news. Nuts and seeds are also a good source of fiber.
Low-carbohydrate vegetables also blunt blood glucose rise. Including vegetables with your meal can slow the release of glucose, provide vitamins and minerals, and increase your sense of satiety. Satiety, which is when you feel full and want to stop eating, is a lovely feeling to become mindful of. Think of satiety as having a sense of awareness of your eating satisfaction. It can tie into mindfulness, which I will write about in another article.
How to use this information
Be honest with yourself if you think some foods are good or bad. It is an earworm from diet culture that has to be challenged.
Food pairing can help you blunt how quickly blood glucose (which is what carbohydrates become when digested) is absorbed. Fiber and plant-based fats slow the digestion of carbohydrates.
Food does impact your blood glucose. This article provides a basic overview, but your personal experience can vary.
Monitoring your blood sugar helps you understand your eating patterns.
Subscribers: Remember to download the Blood Sugar Rocket handout.
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