Hypoglycemia Prevention
Preventing hypoglycemia with dietary change is fairly simple.
1. Eat smaller meals, but eat more often. Try for 3 meals and 2 snacks, or 5 small meals every 3-4 hours. If you experience hypoglycemia in the morning, try having a small high-protein, low-carbohydrate, low-sugar snack just before bed. Nuts are good, and if you’re hungry, add some fresh vegetables like carrots or celery.
2. Eat when you first get up. Skipping breakfast is murder on your blood sugar, and the next time you eat, your body will pack as many calories away as possible for later.
3. Eat real food. To get the enzymes needed to properly digest your food, you need to eat a range of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish. Junk food, being refined, processed, added to chemically, filled with fillers and fat-fortified and super-salted, is not real food. You can eat it; you can also eat cotton balls, or dirt. Just because you can eat it doesn’t make it food.
4. Most people don’t get enough enzymes because modern food lacks so many essential nutrients. Take enzymes AND eat enzyme-rich foods. Take digestive enzymes to help your body make the most out of its food. Eat kim-chee or natural fermented sauerkraut; eat fruits, vegetable and sprouts, which are loaded with enzymes.
5. Skip the alcohol. Booze has loads of carbs, which convert to blood sugar, which zooms up and then crashes when your body pushes out the insulin to metabolize it. Part of a hangover is the hypoglycemia that comes from alcohol’s effect on the body.
6. Snack before and after exercising. It doesn’t have to be a lot-an apple is good. Meal bars are usually much too high in sugar. But when you exercise, your body is burning up the blood sugar, so don’t let it run out of fuel. Like a fuel-injection engine, you want to give your body a caloric boost; after that initial startup, it can burn stored fat without taking your blood sugar too low.
Treating Hypoglycemia
1. If your blood sugar is so low that eating makes you sick, boost it up with an emergency blast of sugar. Half a can of soda is quick and easy to drink when you’re nauseous. Sweet juice can work, too. Or stir a tablespoon of sugar or honey into hot or cold water. The key here is to work fast; don’t spend time boiling water or squeezing oranges, because by the time you’re hypoglycemic, your blood sugar out of control. If you’re too sick or confused to mix a drink, just eat a big spoonful of sugar or honey. (Sugar substitutes will not work!)
2. Wait 15 minutes. How do you feel? If you’re still miserable, have another drink and wait 15 minutes more. You can do this 3 times, but if you’re still woozy, vomiting and confused, it’s time to go to the hospital. DO NOT DRIVE when you’re hypoglycemic. You might pass out and kill someone-or yourself. Call an ambulance or have a friend take you to the E.R.
3. After 1-3 sweet drinks, you should be feeling better. As soon as you can eat without vomiting, eat some real food. If it stays down, follow it up with a protein-rich meal. Don’t scarf a bunch of doughnuts; you’ll just wind up with another blood sugar crash in a couple of hours. Go for low-glycemic foods that release their sugars slowly, keeping your blood sugar stable. Try eggs, oatmeal, brown rice, and a normal size piece of meat, fish or tofu. Have a cheese sandwich or some kind of nut butter. Drink a glass of water to help the nutrients in your food move correctly through your digestive system.
4. Once you can eat, you’ll probably improve in a few hours, though you may feel weak and crummy all day. Now that you’ve treated your hypoglycemia, reread the prevention strategies and see what changes you can make to keep your blood sugar stable!
