In my role as a doctor people often ask me what are the causes of low blood sugar, and it’s not uncommon for them to worry that they have diabetes. But if you’re not already taking diabetes medication one of the most usual causes of low blood sugar is what you’re eating, and not diabetes.
How many of these do you feel on a regular basis, and do they have you reaching for sugary and carb based snacks or sugary drinks to get you back to normal?
- feeling hungry enough to eat your own body weight in food
- feeling tired, and irritable enough to smack someone
- feeling dizzy, trembly or shaky
- having problems concentrating
Causes of Low Blood Sugar
By far the commonest is a carb-loaded diet, especially the highly refined ones like white flour products and white rice. Refined ‘food’ like this shoots your blood sugar up too high and too fast, and you end up with a rebound low blood sugar – which feels uncomfortable, giving you the symptoms above.
Drinking sugary fizzy drinks is the one of the other common causes of low blood sugar, it happens shortly after you’ve had the drink.
If you’d like to know why this happens you can find out here – The Truth About Sugar
As well as feeling horrible, low blood sugar almost forces you to eat – and more than you need, and more of the same crap that got you into that mess in the first place. This is why refined white rubbish is so fattening – you get caught in an almost addictive cycle of feeling awful, and correcting that feeling with the very stuff that got you into that state in the first place.
Binge drinking is one of the other more common causes of low blood sugar. A few hours after your session your blood sugar crashes. Too much alcohol is fattening in itself, but it has the double whammy of making you eat the wrong stuff and too much of it in the hangover aftermath.
If you recognise this in yourself the solution is in your hands.
How often are you eating white refined carbs? How often are you eating or drinking sugar? How often do you binge drink?
Start replacing some of the rubbish with real and whole foods. This will result in a more even blood sugar level – you’ll feel loads better, you’ll have more energy, you won’t be driven to eat so much – you’ll get healthier, you’ll feel more alive, and you’ll probably lose weight too.
If you’d like to learn more about how your body works with the food you put into it you’ll find it all in Living the Slim Life.
Have a great week!
Dr Julie