Many of us suffer from our blood sugar level being out of balance. If you have high blood sugar levels (diabetes), then you will hopefully be under the supervision of a medical practitioner. This article is about low blood sugar levels, sometimes referred to as hypoglycaemia.

There are many causes of low blood sugar, including stress, food allergies and nutritional deficiencies. However, here we are focusing on three ways in which we can all make changes to our habits to greatly reduce the likelihood of suffering low blood sugar – our intake of sugar, coffee and tobacco.

Sugar

Refined grains and refined white sugar are probably the most significant factors involved in hypoglycaemia. As well as the sugar we ourselves add to drinks and food, surprisingly large quantities of sugar are added to many processed foods and drinks, even savoury ready meals. Refined grains are stripped of their nutrients and only a few are replaced. E.g. up to 98% of chromium is lost and 78% of zinc. These two minerals are critical for blood glucose control. Refined grains are not only depleted of nutrients, but they use up your body stores of nutrients in the process of trying to deal with them.

Solution: Buy only natural ingredients and resist the temptation to add sugar to your food and drinks!

Coffee

Coffee can drastically lower your blood sugar level. Coffee stimulates the adrenal glands, which encourages the liver to breakdown its glycogen stores, and release it back into the bloodstream as glucose. The dependable quick fix of a cup of coffee with sugar is like a double ‘whammy'. The body is flooded with an immediate source of sugar into the bloodstream, while coffee adds to the total sugar load by acting through the adrenal glands and liver.

Solution: Try to cut back your coffee consumption, and gradually reduce the amount of sugar you take with it.

Tobacco

Studies have shown that nicotine rapidly increases blood sugar levels by as much as 36%, followed by a rapid drop shortly after the cigarette is put out. This sudden drop in blood sugar level after a cigarette helps to explain the addictive nature of nicotine and the craving for the next cigarette soon after. Although the mechanism is not clearly understood, smoking can cause a severe deficiency of vitamin C. This vitamin has many roles in the body and a deficiency is associated with many degenerative diseases.

Solution: Quit smoking if you can. If you can't, improving your diet by eating more fruits and vegetables can help to reduce cravings, thus making it easier to quit smoking in the long run.

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