Ask most mainstream docs: What should my blood sugars be after a meal? They’ll invariably reply: “As long as it’s decrease than 200 mg/dl, you’re great. Is that this true?
No, utterly not. Blood sugars after a meal of, say, 180 mg/dl, are dangerous for long-term effectively being. What the doctor is saying is “You don’t however have kind 2 diabetes necessitating insulin or totally different treatment to cut back blood sugar and I’m as a result of this truth not concerned to your near-term safety.” In normal healthcare, not needing a drug or course of is taken into account as “effectively being.” In spite of everything, that isn’t our definition of effectively being. What he/she is not saying is “This generally is a diploma of blood sugar in step with optimum effectively being.” In precise truth, you’re going to return to know that any blood sugar >100 mg/dl holds potential for damaging outcomes on effectively being.
Let’s say your blood sugar earlier to the meal is sweet at 87 mg/dl. (Final fasting glucose is 70-90 mg/dl). You’ve bought a breakfast of stoneground pure oatmeal in skim milk with blueberries, a teaspoon of honey, and an 8 ounce glass of orange juice. You look at your blood sugar 30-60 minutes after the start of your meal 178 mg/dl—a level your doctor declares is okay. Docs moreover advise you to look at a blood sugar 2 hours after a meal, nonetheless that’s to seek out out whether or not or not blood sugar returns to its baseline diploma for capabilities of managing it with insulin or totally different treatment—that’s NOT what we’re trying to find. We’re trying to find the peak blood sugar. Anytime blood sugar rises over 100 mg/dl, everyone knows that:
- Repeated cycles of extreme blood sugar include extreme blood insulin. That’s the technique that ends in insulin resistance that ends in weight purchase (significantly in inflammatory visceral fat), kind 2 diabetes, hypertension, small LDL particles that end in coronary coronary heart sickness, fatty liver, and elevated potential for conditions equivalent to Alzheimer’s dementia (“kind 3 diabetes”). In numerous phrases, that breakfast of oatmeal and orange juice models you up for fairly a couple of persistent effectively being points.
- The liver converts the sugars in your breakfast to triglycerides via the strategy of de novo lipogenesis, the conversion of sugars to fats (triglycerides). Triglycerides are launched into the bloodstream as very low-density lipoproteins, VLDL, that contribute to coronary coronary heart sickness and set off formation of small LDL particles that moreover contribute to coronary coronary heart sickness. Some triglycerides moreover keep throughout the liver and contribute to the strategy of fatty liver.
- An enormous influx of sugars (the amylopectin of oats, sugars in honey and orange juice) alters the intestinal microbiome, favoring proliferation of Proteobacteria (the species of dysbiosis and SIBO) and fungi like Candida albicans.
- A rise in blood sugar causes irreversible glycation, i.e., glucose modification of proteins. That’s the elemental course of that ends in cataracts, accelerated pores and pores and skin getting previous, deterioration of joint cartilage and osteoarthritis, worsens the middle disease-causing potential of small LDL particles, and dementia.
In spite of everything, the higher the blood sugar rise after a meal, the additional these processes are set in motion. Extreme blood sugars after a meal are as a result of this truth pretty detrimental to effectively being, reverse to conventional advice. For that purpose, I advocate what I title “The No Change Rule”: blood sugar 30-60 minutes after the start of a meal should be roughly the an identical as blood sugar earlier to the meal (accepting that finger stick blood sugars are right to +/- 15 mg/dl). A blood sugar pre-meal of, say, 93 mg/dl ought to remain at about that diploma 30-60 minutes after the start. You thereby don’t set off a large rise in insulin, don’t create insulin resistance, don’t set off liver de novo lipogenesis, don’t set off formation of VLDL and small LDL particles, don’t set off opposed changes throughout the intestinal microbiome, and don’t set off glycation—all foremost advantages for effectively being.
When you may have entry to a gradual glucose monitor, even increased—nonetheless nonetheless adhere to the No Change Rule for max effectively being revenue.