The Four Laws Of Blood Sugar Control

If you’re someone with diabetes, the top priority you’ll have is maintaining optimal control over your blood glucose levels. Those who aren’t keeping good control over their blood sugar are going to be at a much higher risk for a wide array of complications, many of which may seriously impact their health and well-being.

The good news is that keeping control over your blood sugar doesn’t have to be all that challenging provided you keep a few ‘laws’ in mind. These laws will help guide you when making mealtime decisions.

Let’s walk you through the four guiding principles to use so that you can put your mind at ease about controlling your blood sugar.

Protein, Protein, Protein

The first thing to note is that every meal you eat should contain some form of protein. This can’t be stated emphatically enough. Protein is important for not only keeping blood glucose stable, but keeping hunger in check as well.

Additionally, it helps keep your metabolic rate humming along so you can literally eat more food on a regular basis without worrying about weight gain.

Every meal you eat should contain at least 20 grams of protein, while every snack should have 10-15 grams of protein. Most people will want to have slightly more than this (a meal should be around 30-40 grams, depending on total protein requirements), so this is the bare minimum.

Focus on getting your protein from quality sources such as lean beef, chicken, turkey, fish, seafood, and low-fat dairy products.

Regular Meal Times

It’ll also be very helpful if you ensure that you have regular meal times in place in order to keep your blood glucose levels stable. It’s one thing to eat the right foods but another to eat the right foods at the right times. The timing of meals must be considered as well.

If you aren’t eating the right foods when you need to eat them, this too is going to create problems down the road. You’ll want to be sure that you don’t go longer than you should without food.

Eventually, this may cause uncontrollable hunger so that when you do finally eat, you’ll want to eat everything in sight.

Remember that the hungrier you are, the less control you’ll have over your food choices. It’s times like these when you’ll tend to make the worst decisions about what to put into your body.

While there are a few people who can go hours and hours without eating and have no problem, most with diabetes should be eating something every 3-4 hours. Remember that your body is different than someone who doesn’t have diabetes, so the general dietary guidelines that apply to them may not necessarily apply to you.

A Focus On Fiber

The third component of making sure you’re doing everything you can to keep your blood glucose levels stable is focusing on dietary fiber. Dietary fiber works in combination with protein to help slow down the release of blood glucose after eating carbohydrates, keeping your levels stabilized.

Despite the fact that fiber is a carb, it’s a much healthier carb to get into your diet compared to overly refined and processed carbs. So, if you have the choice, go for it.

This being said, remember that eating too much fiber can also be problematic and may lead to issues with optimal nutrient absorption.

You want just enough fiber but not too much. About 3-8 grams of fiber per meal and 2-3 grams per snack is a good place to aim for.

Beyond that, if you still need more help, look at eating more dietary fat along with the carbs and protein because that’s the third nutrient that will help to slow down the release of carbohydrates in the bloodstream.

Portion Control

Finally, it’s vital that you keep portion control in mind at all times. If you have done all of the above, to be honest, you should be able to eat almost anything and not have to worry too much as long as you keep your portion size in check.

This doesn’t give you an excuse to eat anything you want, but it does mean that you can stress less because you’re doing everything else right.

In general, you’ll want to try to stay around 25-30 grams of complex carbs per meal. If you’re eating fiber-rich vegetables, you can literally eat just about as many of them as you wish without worry.

But complex carbs such as rice, pasta, beans, and other whole grains should be limited.

Going over this amount will make it more likely that you suffer from a blood glucose high followed by a potential crash.

So, keep these points in mind and make sure you’re not doing something that’s making it harder for you to see success. Wise choices will lead to a better overall well-being.