As a woman suffering from PCOS, I’ve learned that managing my blood sugar is very important. High insulin levels can make the symptoms of PCOS worse, lead to extra pounds that can be difficult to lose and potentially lead to type 2 diabetes.
Learning to keep my insulin levels stable and avoiding insulin spikes has been a journey, but is essential to keeping my health in check.
In this post, I wanted to share 10 hacks to minimize insulin spikes in your diet to keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day and explain the downsides of high blood sugar to your health.
Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.
What Causes Insulin Spikes (a.k.a. glucose spikes)?
Foods that are high in carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates, tend to cause the most significant spikes in blood sugar. Carbohydrates break down to sugar in the bloodstream and require insulin to be metabolized into usable energy. Here are some of the main culprits in your diet that can lead to higher insulin levels:
- Sugary drinks: Soda, juice, sports drinks, and sweetened beverages are loaded with sugar that’s quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.
- Refined grains: White bread, white rice, pasta, pastries, and breakfast cereals are made from processed grains that have been stripped of fiber, causing them to be digested quickly, rapidly increasing insulin levels.
- Sugary snacks: Candy, cookies, cakes, and other sweet treats are high in sugar and low in fiber, leading to a rapid rise in blood sugar.
- Processed foods: Many processed foods, such as chips, crackers, and ready-to-eat meals, contain added sugars and refined carbohydrates that can cause blood sugar spikes.
- Certain fruits: While fruits are generally healthy, some fruits like bananas, grapes, and dried fruits have a higher sugar content and can cause a larger spike in blood sugar, especially when eaten in large quantities or on an empty stomach.
- Starchy Vegetables: Vegetables like potatoes, peas, corn, while healthy, also contain higher levels of carbohydrate that can spike your blood sugar.
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Why Are Glucose Spikes Harmful To Your Health?
Glucose spikes, which are the rapid increase of insulin into your bloodstream after consuming carbohydrates, can have negative effects on your health, both in the short term and the long term. Here’s why they’re considered unhealthy:
Short-term effects of high blood sugar (insulin spikes):
- Energy crash: After the initial surge of energy from the glucose, a subsequent drop in blood sugar can leave you feeling tired, sluggish, and craving more sugar.
- Increased hunger: Insulin spikes can trigger a cycle of hunger and cravings for more carbohydrates (sugar), making it harder to maintain a healthy weight
- Mood swings: Fluctuations in blood sugar can affect your mood, leading to irritability, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating.
Long-term effects of unmanaged high blood sugar:
- Insulin resistance: Over time, frequent insulin spikes can lead to insulin resistance in some people, a condition where your cells become less responsive to insulin. This can eventually progress to prediabetes and then type 2 diabetes if your blood sugar is not properly managed. Many women, like myself, with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), suffer from insulin resistance.
- Weight gain: Insulin promotes fat storage, so frequent spikes can contribute to weight gain and made it hard to lose weight, especially around the midsection.
- Increased risk of chronic diseases: Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are linked to a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, nerve damage, and other serious health problems.
Other potential health concerns of high insulin and glucose spikes:
- Inflammation: Some studies suggest that insulin spikes may contribute to chronic inflammation in the body, which is linked to various health issues.
- Hormonal imbalances: Glucose spikes can affect other hormones in the body, potentially leading to hormonal imbalances such as PCOS.
We can’t always avoid sugars and high carbohydrate foods and insulin spikes are normal. However, consistently high and frequent insulin spikes can be terrible for your health.
By making some insulin-balancing lifestyle changes to manage blood sugar levels and reduce insulin spikes, you can improve your overall health and reduce your risk of developing chronic diseases.
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Myth: Influencers will try and tell you that “natural” sugars in fruits and honey don’t impact your blood sugar in the same way sugars in chocolates and candies do; this is false, and all sugars can lead to a glucose spike in your body, regardless of the source.
10 easy tips for reducing glucose spikes
Jessie Inchauspé, also known as the Glucose Goddess, is a French biochemist and author who has gained popularity for her hacks to manage blood sugar levels and reduce glucose spikes. I recently started following her on Instagram and she always great tips to help manage blood sugar levels.
Below are 10 great tips to naturally avoid insulin spikes:
- Eat your food in the right order: Start with fiber (veggies), then protein and fats, and lastly, carbs and sugars. This slows down the absorption of glucose (sugar) into the bloodstream to avoid a surge of insulin.
- Add a green starter to all your meals: A salad with oil and vinegar, or even a few bites of broccoli, can make a big difference in getting you full faster and will help to reduce the glucose spike of any carbohydrates that follow. Your veggie starter should be 30% of your meal.
- Put some “clothes” on your carbs: Don’t eat carbs by themselves. Add fiber, fat, or protein to them sugars and starches. For example, add olive oil to bread or pair fruit with nuts to balance out the sugar hit.
- Reach for vinegar before you eat carb snack: A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar before a sweet snack can has been shown to reduce the insulin spike by up to 30%!
- After you eat, move: Go for a 20-30 minute walk or do any kind of exercise. This helps your muscles use the glucose for energy instead of it staying in your blood and spiking insulin.
- If you have to snack, go savory: Choose something filled with protein, healthy fats and fiber over sugar-filled treats where possible.
- Flatten your breakfast curve: Avoid sugary breakfast cereals and opt for a balanced breakfast with fiber, fat, and protein. Any starchy foods should be eaten last and fruits, especially berries, make a great sweet treat.
- Have any type of sugar you like, they are all the same: Brown sugar, white sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup… it’s all made of glucose and they all have the same impact on your body. Don’t believe health influencers that say honey and fruit has “healthy sugars” that don’t impact your insulin levels – they’re wrong! Your body secretes insulin to metabolize all sugars!
- Pick a dessert over a snack: It’s much better to have that cheesecake after dinner than a Snickers as a snack. Hopefully your meal is filled with fats, proteins and greens to buffer the sweet treat at the end.
- Stop counting calories: Focus on protein, fat, and fiber instead. Eat sugary and starchy foods (like pasta, bread, rice, potatoes) in smaller portions. If you suffer from insulin resistance, calories from glucose-filled foods can be worse than those from fats or proteins.
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Bonus hacks to avoid glucose spikes when eating breads, pasta and rice
Hack #1: Store your bread in the freezer: When bread is frozen and thawed, a process called starch retrogradation occurs. This process changes the structure of the starch, making it more difficult for enzymes to break down, slowing down the insulin secretion.
The result? An increase in resistant starch, which acts like fiber in your digestive system. It passes through the small intestine largely undigested and is fermented by gut bacteria in the large intestine. This glucose hack effectively reduces the glycemic index of the bread.
Hack #2: Eat pasta and rice after storing it in the fridge for 24 hours: This tip is great for reducing the insulin spike from starchy left overs the next day – as per above, the cooling process results in starch retrogradation, which lowers the spike in insulin levels.
Hack #3: Cook pasta to al dente: In North America, most people cook their pasta until soft. The problem with this is it breaks down the starches, which spikes your insulin levels. Instead, cook your pasta to the al dente cooking time (which is normally indicated on the box); the pasta will be a bit harder but it will also take longer to break down in your digestion, resulting in a slower insulin increase.
Maintaining healthy insulin levels is so important to our health, especially if you are at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes due to PCOS or other health factors.
Incorporating these insulin stabilizing tips to avoid insulin spikes and understanding what causes glucose spikes can help you achieve more stable blood sugar levels and better overall health.
