When people run into trouble with their blood sugar, usually in the form of insulin resistance or diabetes, they rely on insulin and other medications to regulate their blood sugar as they unfortunately continue to eat the same foods that originally caused their problem.

The best way to regulate blood sugar is to keep it steady by eating foods that are much less likely to make it rise excessively. This is primarily natural whole foods such as meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Even fruits and high starch vegetables can be a problem if eaten in excess. In addition, increasing the amount of protein and fat in a meal will help to keep blood sugar stable.

It’s also possible that your friend isn’t using the right amount of insulin. Too much will cause blood sugar to drop too low and not enough will allow it to get high.

I can appreciate your frustration because I’ve been through it myself. Hypoglycemia was just the tip of the iceberg for me.

American doctors are the best in the world at keeping us alive and dealing with traumatic and acute health issues, but in my opinion, are awful at helping us maintain basic health. It’s not totally their fault, it’s just how our system works and how they’re trained.

If you really want to see some unfortunate aspects of our medical system, check this out:

Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs

This is why I try to encourage everyone to take responsibility for their health and educate themselves as much as possible so that they can make informed decisions.

There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of conflicting information out there. In such cases, I like to rely on nature as my guide. You can read what I wrote about the work of Weston A. Price to get a better idea of what I mean. He studied isolated cultures that didn’t have access to the modern processed foods that we eat today and found that they enjoyed much better health. These people lived according to the laws of nature and enjoyed vibrant health as a result. Price saw this change dramatically right before his eyes when some of these cultures began eating modern foods.

It can be helpful for people who are prone to hypoglycemia to eat a snack high in protein and/or fat prior to bed and first thing in the morning. I think that would be much better than orange juice which contains a lot of sugar. One of the very first books I read about hypoglycemia, The Low Blood Sugar Handbook, recommends keeping a small amount of plain yogurt by your bedside to have as soon as you wake up. I tried this and found it helpful, but as I learned more about improving my health, I found that I don’t need to do anything like this while following a truly healthy diet. I don’t need to eat every couple of hours either which is an other common piece of advice given to people who suffer from hypoglycemia.

By a while, I mean long enough to see if it makes a difference and establish a baseline. A month would be a good start.

Like you, I am highly susceptible to hypoglycemia. During my glucose tolerance test, my blood sugar rapidly dropped to the mid 50s. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to hypoglycemia such as adrenal fatigue, but in general, some people are simply more sensitive to sugar than others and will stay that way. I’ve completely eliminated things like bread, pasta, bagels, juice, etc. from my diet because I know what they’ll do to my blood sugar. Even people who are less sensitive to sugar will still experience unhealthy blood sugar fluctuations from these foods, but not to the same extent. Regardless of hypoglycemia, these foods are not part of a truly healthy diet for anyone. Both your health and your blood sugar would be much better off if you primarily ate natural whole foods such as meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables.

Most people who have issues with blood sugar tend to do well on a high protein and high fat diet which has also been the case for me. My results with Metabolic Typing correlated with this as well and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same would be true for you.

Eating an apple by itself was probably not the greatest thing. As you saw, your blood sugar jumped up to 125 which is close to being high, and in many cases, and this can easily provoke an excessive insulin response that will cause your blood sugar to drop again. This is why I call it the “blood sugar rollercoaster.” When you consume carbohydrates to elevate your blood sugar, it temporarily raises it, but ultimately causes it to drop and creates a vicious cycle.

Based on this, crackers aren’t a good idea either. Peanut butter isn’t bad, but in general, I think raw organic nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pecans, or macadamias are a healthier choice. Just make sure to soak them first.

The key to avoiding hypoglycemia is not only about keeping your blood pressure above a certain level, but more importantly, also keeping it steady. This will only happen if you eat the right foods and focusing on whole foods such as meat, fish, fruit (in moderation), and low starch vegetables is the easiest and healthiest way to do it.

I absolutely do not recommend sugar free condiments because they usually contain artificial sweeteners like aspartame (Nutrasweet and Equal) or Splenda. As I mentioned in my previous comment, these sweeteners can be dangerous and have been known to cause symptoms that are similar to yours such as a racing heartbeat and burning skin sensations.

In addition, most artificial sweeteners actually contain a large percentage of sugar. Per serving, it’s a small enough amount to justify the “sugar free” labeling. However, if you use enough of the sweetener, it can accumulate to a large enough amount to cause blood sugar to rise too much.

The only exception I would recommend is products that are sweetened with stevia, and I still suggest only using them in moderation.

I hope that helps!

Assuming 101 is in milligrams, this is actually a pretty normal level for blood sugar. Have you given any thought to your racing heart and burning neck being caused by something else?

Be judicious with the glucose tablets as they can temporarily increase your sugar level, but cause it to drop again later on.

It sounds like you’ve done a pretty good job of adjusting your diet for hypoglycemia, but if you want to be safe, I suggest completely avoiding bread, orange juice, and cereal, at least for a while, because they are all high in sugar and/or refined carbohydrates. It would even be a good idea to be judicious about the amount of fruit that you eat.

Splenda is unnatural and potentially dangerous. It has caused problems for many people and would avoid it.

In regard to regulating blood sugar, protein and fat are your friend. They can both be sources of energy, and they slow down the absorption of sugars. Since you seem to be intentionally avoiding fat, here are a few articles that might help you realize that it doesn’t deserve it’s bad reputation.

Hey Fat Head, You’ve Been Fed a Load of Bologna (this is a great documentary)
12 Reasons Why Saturated Fat is Good For You

To answer your last question, stress is more likely to raise blood sugar than decrease it. Stress promotes the release of the hormone cortisol which elevates your blood pressure and blood sugar to help your body deal with whatever caused it. This is basically the fight or flight response.

I hope that helps!

I’m glad you’ve taken the initiative to educate yourself and have realized that grain based foods, even if whole, can cause hypoglycemia as well. Keep up the good work!