Blood Sugar, Energy & Mood
It really is all about a good breakfast...but that may not mean what you think
Thanks for your patience while I’ve been taking a bit of a holiday from Seeds from the World Tree in recent weeks. Today I’m serving up a rather utilitarian slab of prose, very much on the nuts-and-bolts side, as we discuss the central role of blood sugar regulation to healthy metabolism. Far from being intended as some kind of holiday downer, consider this your cheat code for a solid foundation that’ll leave more leeway for holiday indulgence, not less.
In coming weeks I’ll be turning my attention to something completely different. For now, enjoy this little lesson in glycemic regulation.
Since October I’ve been concentrating the acupuncture and herbal side of my work at Meridian Health Solutions, an East Asian Medicine clinic in Durham, NC (a respectable gig which leaves me free to be an unabashed mage in my outside work—more on which soon). Having colleagues and clinical mentors again means picking up all sorts of useful tidbits, including bits and bobs of functional medicine, a discipline my colleagues are integrating into their still primarily acupuncture-based work to good effect.
As a traditionalist heavily steeped in the Chinese medicine classics, I wasn’t sure what to make of functional medicine at first: too newfangled, part of me grumbled. And, truth be told, I still much prefer herbal formulas to encapsulated, lab-produced supplements. But after testing the waters, I’ve seen some clear benefits, particularly in regards to blood sugar regulation and its connection to energy levels, mood and cognition. We’re talking core metabolism and the gut-brain axis: pretty foundational stuff.
It’s amazing how many people—including many who consider themselves healthy eaters—have some kind of blood sugar dysfunction. This may include insulin resistance (telltale sign: sleepiness after a meal) and reactive hypoglycemia, often a degree of both.
For many of these folks, blood sugar regulation issues go hand in hand with chronic stress a.k.a. adrenal fatigue. The cycle goes something like this.
You wake up feeling tired and reach for your morning coffee, skipping breakfast or grabbing a muffin, a quick bowl of cereal or some yogurt. Sugar/carbs and caffeine do their thing and you start the day on an energy jag…which lasts until maybe 10am, when you start to get lightheaded or shaky. Somehow you muddle through until lunch, maybe a sandwich or curry and rice—either way, you find yourself badly needing an early afternoon nap. You power through with another cup of coffee or tea, and make it home in time to collapse in your favorite chair which, by now, has molded itself to your body. To round things out, a drink or two helps take the edge off. You pass out around 11pm, only to sleep fitfully and wake tired…
And so it goes.
Decoding this cycle, we can see the role played by out-of-whack stress hormones and blood sugar dysregulation. Let’s take a closer look.
That morning coffee certainly gives a kick to the adrenals, but they might do okay if the body wasn’t being asked to run entirely off their energy reserves. Unfortunately that’s what happens with a carb-heavy, low protein, low fat breakfast. The energy from the sugar is short-lived, followed by a glucose crash in which the body has to call on the adrenals once again to release cortisol in order to stabilize blood sugar, drawing on the body’s reserves in the process. (This is a chronic low-grade emergency for our cells, who eventually get inured to the alarm signals and stop responding in such a sprightly way. This is where insulin resistance comes into play.) A nutrient dense lunch with plenty of protein, fat and fiber would go a long way towards steadying the ship and limiting the metabolic chaos. But if we instead have more carbs mid-day, we perpetuate the cycle and the glycemic rollercoaster ride.
In particular, that post-prandial need to snooze is a sure sign that blood sugar is out of whack. (But by all means, do take a quick nap if you do feel the need for one — there’s no better way to give your body a chance to re-set the blood sugar response and return to equilibrium). At this rate by day’s it’s easy to end up both tired and wired. Unfortunately turning to a drink or two to downshift only perpetuates the cycle, since alcohol after dinner tends to destabilize nighttime glycemic regulation and only leads to poor sleep quality.
The key to interrupting the vicious cycle? You’ve heard it a million times, but it really is all about a good breakfast. This is a party I myself am late to, and heeding the wisdom of this approach has been a game-changer for me over the past few months. Eating a protein-rich, fat-rich and ideally fiber-rich breakfast within an hour of waking provides the body with a reliable, slow-burning fuel source that stabilizes blood sugar and circumvents any need to run off of adrenal reserves. It gets you off on the right foot for the day, metabolically speaking.
For many people this could look like huevos rancheros, or an omelette with vegetables, or leaving typical American breakfast aside, any number of reconfigured leftovers involving meat or fish. Lately I’ve been having a crispy quesadilla or two topped with beans or lentils (I’ll make a pot big enough to last the week) and some sautéed vegetables (e.g. calabacita or zucchini with onion and tomato). Great fuel.
If like many you’re not especially hungry in the morning, it’s still a good idea to train yourself to eat a more nourishing breakfast. You may find that eating opens the appetite (as they say in Greek) and gives you a solid foundation for the day.
For more on how to eat for blood sugar regulation, check out the highly informative cookbook Practical Paleo, which lays out principles that can be applied even for those of us not interested in swearing off grains altogether.
A final note: even though morning toast doesn’t exactly pass the glycemic stability test, adding plenty of butter or avocado goes a long way toward smoothing out the blood sugar curve. Add an egg or some cheese as well, and you’re well on your way.
Happy eating, everyone. May you find nourishment and joy this season, even amidst the madness.