Signs your blood sugar may be out of balance:
- Cravings for sweets, sugar, or bread products (This is almost a guaranteed sign that your blood sugar is out of balance.)
- Fatigue after eating a meal or a “food-coma”
- Lightheadedness if meals are missed
- Eating sweets does not relieve the cravings for sweets
- Dependence on coffee to keep yourself going or get started
- Difficulty losing weight
Blood sugar imbalance is a condition in which your body does not handle glucose effectively. Throughout the day, blood glucose levels may fluctuate outside of the body’s desired blood glucose range. Your energy can swing from being high after a meal to being low if you skip a meal. Insulin is the hormone responsible for keeping the blood sugar levels in the normal desired range. Insulin works by opening channels on cell membranes, allowing glucose to travel from the blood into body cells. During times of blood sugar imbalance, insulin can become a little out of control.
In some situations, like after a carbohydrate- or sugar-rich meal, too much insulin is produced. When insulin is high, lots of cell glucose channels become open, which results in the blood glucose level dropping too low. During insulin resistance, the cell membranes have difficulty recognizing insulin and too few channels are opened. In this situation, both insulin and glucose remain high in the blood and some cells stay deficient in glucose. Cells in the pancreas secrete insulin into the bloodstream. These cells can often become exhausted after long periods of producing excessive levels of insulin. Once tired, these cells can no longer produce adequate amounts of insulin to achieve perfect blood sugar balance. Low insulin production also leads to blood sugar imbalance.
Blood sugar imbalance can be a precursor to diabetes mellitus and it is therefore important to address the contributing factors before the condition develops further. It is particularly important to think about this as we age. Over time without a sustained good diet our bodies can become less efficient at clearing toxins. In turn this reduces our ability to achieve good blood sugar imbalance. Read more about how the body process toxins here.
The good news is that for most, a blood sugar imbalance is easy to resolve. Reduce your intake of sugary and fatty foods, increase your water intake (need help on this one, click here) and actively move your body, a couple of weeks is all it takes to set yourself on the right path. Need Help? Our Personalised 30-Day Program is a great way to kick-start your body into a happier, healthier you. Check it out now.