At first thought restaurants and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) do not go well together.

In fact restaurants, especially since the ‘credit crunch’, will go out of their way to accommodate hypoglycemics. Don’t only think of the waiter, think of the owner behind the restaurant. He would rather you discussed your diet requirements and your low blood sugar problem, than lose your business.

Advance planning by contacting the restaurant, even in person, is a must. Early on in the day before many guests arrive you will find the manager or headwaiter only too happy to deal with your hypoglycemic symptoms. They will keep a record of your requirements for the following evening.

If you have a favorite restaurant, in no time at all they will build up a knowledge of the kind of meals they should prepare for people with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar level). You will find they will swap a potato, rice, pasta or starch based dish for different vegetables or a small salad.

By carefully avoiding any refined carbohydrates it doesn’t mean there will be nothing left in the restaurant to fill your fancy. On the other hand, there is no point in carefully sticking to your diet plan at home if you are going to ignore everything once you are out and about.

For a start, don’t begin the meal with the usual rolls which restaurants offer while waiting to be served. One roll is the equivalent of two starch servings.

Protein such as meat & fish are generally the main course - so the basics of the meal are already okay. But, you need to check the details concerning refined carbohydrates. Do not hold back, respectfully ask the waiter with what the meal is prepared. Is it bread crumbs, flour or sugar? Fish, meats and poultry can be covered with flour. Also don’t overlook gravies and sauces.

There are a number of terms restaurants use which you should realize are not good for your hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). They are:

* Gravy * Barbecued

* Glazed * A la mode

* Crispy * Sweet and Sour

* Breaded * Honey baked

* Creamed * Stuffed/stuffing

* Fruited * Tetrazzini

You will need to do some background reading to further understand which foods are unacceptable to hypoglycemics. Information to help you start your diet changes is readily available at a small cost to yourself.

The benefits of the right information on hypoglycemia will far outweigh the time and effort required to understand what is a healthy diet and keep you away from the dangers which low blood sugar can lead to.



Thanks to Noel Glass for contributing this article to our Diabetes blog:

Medications For Type 2 Diabetes

When you are referring to blood glucose levels, it is the amount or concentration of glucose in the human body which should be normally in the range of 4 and 6 millimoles per liter (mmol/L). If you are suffering from diabetes you are experiencing levels outside these limits. Higher glucose levels do not always mean you are diabetic, as they may be caused due to several other health reasons. However, whatever may be the cause, it is necessary to maintain the levels within the range as very high or low levels may cause damage to your small blood vessels or develop other risks.

Normal Blood glucose levels:

The total amount of glucose circulating in the human blood is about 3.3 to 7g for an average adult assuming his blood volume to be 5 liters. The blood sugar levels are regulated by the human body as part of a metabolic homeostasis. Glucose which is the primary source of energy for the body cells gets transported via the bloodstream from intestines or liver to the body cells. Blood glucose levels are higher immediately after meals. Ideally the values are 4 to 7mmol/L before meals, less than 10mmol/L immediately after meals and 8mmol/L at bedtime. They are usually the lowest in the morning before you have the first meal of the day. Unless with larger intervals between meals or a substantial carbohydrate content in the recent meal the sugar levels remain within a narrow range of about 3.9 mmol/L or 80 mg/dl to 6.0 mmol/L or 110 mg/dl. It may shoot up temporarily to 140 mg/dl or 141 mg/dl after eating.

Health effects

Failure to keep the blood glucose levels in the normal range may lead to either high or low blood sugar levels. High levels or hyperglycemia is caused when you have sugar levels much higher than the normal range. Persistent hyperglycemia may even lead to diabetes mellitus. Long term hyperglycemia causes health problems like diabetes, kidney damage, nerve damage etc. Low blood sugar level may cause hypoglycemia. Symptoms of hypoglycemia are lethargy, irritability, loss of consciousness, impaired mental function, and even brain damage in some cases.

Common tests

There are different tests that can be done to measure blood glucose levels.

* Fasting blood sugar (FBS):

This test is used to measure levels of glucose after you have not eaten for at least 8 hours. This is often the first test done to check for diabetes, though not the only one.

* Random blood sugar (RBS):

RBS measures the blood sugar regardless of when you have last eaten anything. Several tests may be conducted throughout the day. Random testing is useful in healthy people whose level do not vary widely throughout the day. Any variation may indicate a problem.

* 2 hour postprandial blood sugar:

This test is carried exactly 2 hours after you eat a meal.

* Oral glucose tolerance test:

This test is usually used to diagnose pre-diabetes and involves a series of measurements after you drink a sweet liquid which has glucose. It is most commonly use to diagnose gestational diabetes.

* HbA1c test:

This test is carried out to find out the average blood sugar levels over the previous six to eight weeks. It is basically useful to find out how you are controlling diabetes. HbA1c is a compound which is produced as a result of chemical reaction of hemoglobin and glucose in blood. It is also called as glycated hemoglobin. Consistent high levels cause HbA1c to rise. It is 6% of hemoglobin in people without diabetes, 7.5% with fair control of diabetes and 8.5% indicates poor control of diabetes.

Maintaining blood glucose levels in the specified normal range is necessary to keep you healthy and avoid any kind of future complications.



Thanks to Annie Duvall for contributing this article to our Diabetes blog:

Adult Onset Diabetes

Can you answer prakash’s question about Diabetes?:

I do not mean type 2, but preliminary diabetes conditions and ways to lower the blood sugar level
Sorry I meant type 2
To Summarise the question again: What should you eat/not eat in indian diet to get rid of diabetes if it is type 2 (preliminary)?

Juvenile Diabetes Diet

A growling lion and a boss on the rampage are treated similarly by the body. Both result in the same flood of stress hormones - which often in today’s modern world end in low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia).

But how is the connection between stress and low blood sugar levels made? According to doctors stress hormones tell the body that an extra special effort is required to avoid a catastrophe. But the body built for prehistoric times can only react by flight or fight.

When your blood sugar levels are in balance because of a good diet, any excess sugar released with the stress hormones is easily dispatched by muscle cells.

But in the modern day, stress is often endless (a full day at the office) and it does not involve the physical. You might work over the week-end to finish a report, get upset(because of the lack of free time) and promptly your stress levels increase.

In prehistoric times the extra sugar released would have been burnt off. This constant rollercoaster of stress levels breaks down the body’s control over blood sugar. Before long your blood sugar level is too high or too low (hypoglycemia).

When the levels drop too low, insulin resistance goes up and eventually diabetes,amongst other serious illnesses, develops.

Very often before serious problems set in, because of the tough modern lifestyle,many people look out for little comforts during the course of the day. They justify comfort food eating instead of a good diet.

And so innocently a daily cake and pastry routine develops. Ordinary hot drinks are never sweet enough. Now it is not just stress unbalancing blood sugar levels. A similar flood of sugar in the bloodstream triggers an outpouring of insulin causing repetitive low blood sugar levels.

After ten or twelve years of such daily routine people then are surprised why lethargy or fatigue set in - often first felt in the early afternoons. The effect of low blood sugar levels and poor diet often creep up on people unawares.

Mary, 42, was a classic example of a hypoglycemic. She was having problems at home with her teenage daughter in addition to the demands of a responsible job.

Everyday stress activated her body’s reaction. Her heart sped up and her breathing quickened.

During this reaction the stress hormone cortisol was released. Demand for food increased automatically but the demand was especially for the old favourite, refined carbohydrates - such as white flour, sweets, pop and salty snacks.

Such a diet caused insulin levels to spike and collapse. She was still hungry and constantly reached for more unhealthy carbohydrates.

A complete change in outlook and new diet plan is required.

How can this be achieved? The only solution to problems like Mary’s is to spend a little time improving your understanding of hypoglycemia and dieting by reading up on the latest information.

That way, when you visit a doctor, at the least you will know what he is referring to when he mentions low blood sugar levels, cortisol and insulin. Besides, knowledge motivates you to stick to a good balanced diet.

This knowledge of dieting and hypoglycaemia should be inexpensive and uncomplicated. And it should provide proven strategies and detailed food plans.

The information should provide answers to:

* the kind of cooking hypoglycemics should avoid,

* which foods and vitamins stabilize binge eating,

* coping with withdrawal symptoms after years of eating an unbalanced diet and

* motivate you to persist because of the serious consequences of hypoglycemia.



Thanks to Noel Glass for contributing this article to our Diabetes blog:

Juvenile Diabetes Diet

Some of you (especially baby boomers) might remember The Dirty Dozen, a blockbuster war movie from 1967 featuring an incredible cast that included Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, George Kennedy, and Telly Savalas.

Well, this article is NOT about that Dirty Dozen. It’s about a dozen foods that are downright bad & dirty for you if you’re someone dealing with low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. The characters in the movie were bad dudes, the foods on this list are bad foods. All twelve of them. Avoid them as much as possible.

Bad food #12-White rice:

All foods sit on a continuum that relates their sugar content to how fast they are used in your body. This is called the glycemic index.

In order to keep your blood sugar level constant with as few peaks and valleys as possible, you need to slow the rate at which your body converts your food to the various kinds of sugar used and stored in your body. The best way to do this is to eat foods that, in addition to supplying all the right components of nutrition, burn very slowly.

Since the goal is to slow the rate at which your food is broken down, it is important for an hypoglycemic to avoid fast burning, high glycemic foods starting with sugar, but also including refined foods. This includes white flour, white rice, and other refined and polished grains.

Bad food #11-White bread:

Yes, this is a junk food for an hypoglycemic. Every time you look at a slice of white bread you are seeing a slice of sugar – it acts in the body the same way.

Bad food #10-Donuts:

Think of it as white bread dipped in sugar. What could be worse? No wonder there’s a big hole in the middle – it’s a nutritional zero. What was just said pretty much applies to cookies and cakes in general. Anything that’s made with white flour and lots of sugar, not to mention shortening, coloring and preservatives, is BAD for you!

Bad food #9-Alcohol:

Alcohol, like sugar, contains nothing but calories. It has no nutritive value at all and moves very quickly into your blood stream. This affects your blood sugar very suddenly, and there is a corresponding drop in blood sugar as the alcohol leaves your system.

In diabetes, you can control your sugar level with injected insulin. In hypoglycemia this is not possible, and if you eat and drink foods that play havoc with your blood sugar level, you just have to live with the symptoms. It’s much better then, to avoid the booze and the feeling rotten that comes with it.

An extra caution: Read the labels on all your medications; many include alcohol. You need to find alternatives if at all possible. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you have prescription medication containing alcohol, and ask for help finding an alcohol-free alternative. Some allergy shots also contain alcohol, so check with your doctor.

Alcohol, particularly when consumed with carbohydrate, can cause an excessive release of insulin and lead to episodes of hypoglycemia. The most common scenario is when you consume alcohol and carbohydrate alone, as with a gin (alcohol) and tonic (pure carbohydrate) and a small cracker or cookie. This is a recipe for disaster, and can cause low blood sugar and its accompanying symptoms even if you never have symptoms otherwise. The occasional occurrence of alcohol-induced hypoglycemia is not necessarily an indication that you are, or will become, a chronic hypoglycemic, but whether chronic or not, hypoglycemia is hard on your body and should always be avoided if possible.

There are fairly strong links between hypoglycemia and alcohol related problems, and more than one study suggests that alcoholism can result from unchecked hypoglycemia.

Bad food #8-Fruit drinks:

Not to be confused with fruit juices, fruit drinks are 10 per cent or less real fruit with lots of sugar. They’re loaded with artificial coloring and sucrose. Definitely teeth rotters. A better choice? Fruit juice (in very small amounts). Even better? Whole fruit – since you’ll benefit from the fiber!

Bad food #7-Decaffeinated coffee:

This is bad for everybody, not just hypoglycemic. The reason is that to remove the caffeine, they add chemical solvent right into your favorite beverage.

Bad food #6-Soft drinks / pop:

Let’s see now, how do you spell increased bone breakage? P-O-P. Pop is nothing more than water, colorant, artificial flavor and SUGAR? It’s absolutely DREADFUL for anyone dealing with low blood sugar or hypoglycemia!

Bad food #5. Diet pop:

You get all the dandy benefits of pop (!?!?), plus artificial sweetener, which has been shown in studies to actually increase your sugar cravings and alter your brain chemistry.

Bad food #4-Sugary breakfast cereals:

Now here’s a guarantee: If you want to start your day in a low life-force mode, then this is the junk breakfast for you – even more so if you add to those cereals a couple toasted pieces of white bread.

Bad food #3-Deep-dish pizza:

This is an excellent way to stack, jack and pack your glycemic index tract with one big dollop of sodium, dough (white flour) and fat – an overnight weight-gain wonder.

Bad food #2-Ice cream:

Here’s a beauty, high in sugar and high in fat, for another whack attack on your pancreas and your arteries.

Alright, this is it! The number 1 in our top 12 list of really bad foods for hypoglycemics…

Bad food #1-French fries (and their cousin potato chips):

Here’s why: Both of these are unparalleled sodium-loading enzyme-dead food. And new information now shows that they’re high in acrylimide, a known cancer-causing agent. In fact, the amount of acrylimide in a serving of fast-food French fries is 300 times above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limit set for one glass of water.

Bon appétit!

Eat well, be well, live well!

Daniel G. St-Jean

Editor of Help For Hypoglycemia

Publisher of the Help For Hypoglycemia Blog



Thanks to Daniel St-jean for contributing this article to our Diabetes blog:

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