You can correct hypoglycemia issues often by changing how you eat. Low blood sugar issues are resolved by balancing your blood sugar via diet. Well, that’s obvious. How do you do that? For starters, the balance between your pancreas and adrenal glands is of utmost importance. Pretty much all of the information under “Carbohydrate Intolerance/Insulin Resistance” is going to be pertinent with hypoglycemia, so I won’t be redundant. But let me address some key points.
First, eat breakfast. Eating breakfast is the easiest and single best thing you can do to help manage, and sometimes eliminate your hypoglycemia. If you are already eating breakfast, don’t eat a bagel or muffin, or cereal and juice – have some high quality protein such as eggs, bacon, or even a grass-fed undenatured whey protein smoothie with some coconut milk. You won’t feel like you need that 2-4pm nap anymore.
If you’re using a lot of caffeine (usually more than the amount in 1 cup of coffee), then slowly wean off of it. If you’re using processed canned coffee, buy the whole beans instead (preferably organic). The whole beans have the necessary nutrients in them such as niacinamide to help you detoxify the caffeine.
Eat a healthy amount of protein and fats (coconut milk, meats, butter, eggs, avocados) during your three meals so you’re less hungry and won’t feel the the need to consume sugary snacks. Don’t just grab a soda or cookies for a snack when you need one. Nuts and seeds are good. Cheese, fruit, and eggs make great snacks too. I like coconut milk mixed in with organic berries if you’re okay not needing some more protein. The key here is to eat enough food, focusing on proteins, fats, and vegetables, during your three meals, so you don’t feel the need to eat every two hours which simply promotes poor glucose regulation.
Next, stop the artificial and fake sugars, and that includes Splenda. Splenda may be “made from sugar” but it is chlorinated sugar that contains no calories but tricks your body into thinking it is sugar. Use real sugar if you need to use sugar. Yes, even sugar is better than the fake stuff. Even better use honey; raw local honey is the best. DO NOT use agave, xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, maltitol, high fructose corn syrup, saccharin, or nutrasweet (aspartame). Stevia in small amounts is okay for some, but it’s still processed. Maple syrup (real) is okay too; don’t go crazy on it though.
Exercise aerobically and only aerobically to help correct hypoglycemia. Go to my Fitness section and read up!
Nutrients such as vanadium, chromium, zinc, manganese, and magnesium are sometimes beneficial to help correct hypoglycemia, depending on the situation. Use pure sesame seed oil (not toasted) every day. The sesamin in the oil is beneficial towards insulin regulation.
Hypoglycemia Laboratory Tests
Some doctors still perform glucose tolerance tests to see the response of blood sugar levels at various intervals after you consume a high-sugar solution. However, there are some other general labs you can look into too. Your fasting blood sugar should be between 70-90 mg/dL and your fasting insulin should be under 15.0 mlU/L (ideally under 10 mlU/L). Those are optimal lab values for good health. Triglycerides, commonly high in blood sugar handling cases, should be under 100 mg/dL. Hemoglobin A1c should be under 5.6%.
Dr. Gangemi, Thanks a billion for this super site! I am 62yrs old, sensitive to wheat, dairy, sugar, corn, soy, some shellfish and some nuts and seeds. I have been told by my doctor that I am prediabetic and many years ago I was told I had reactive hypoglycemia. The effects of my fatigued adrenals is colossal for me (insomnia, can’t concentrate). I want to try the TWT, but my doctor told me I could not lose any more weight and without carbs I Iose instantly! I am already challenged with not finding enough foods to eat on the rotation. Can you advise me how to maintain my weight and ditch the carbs? (I eat oatmeal, lots of beans and legumes, small amts. of brown rice and potatoes, quinoa muffins and oatmeal cookie with small amt. of stevia. Please help. and thx again.
Are you a vegetarian (or vegan)? If so then that would be hard to do the TWT. I’d recommend the Paleo-Diet. https://drgangemi.com/2011/07/paleo_diet/
No, Doctor, I am not vegetarian. With the multiple food sensitivities, I have to eat meat, fish, etc. I will take a look at the Paleo diet. Could you explain why you have recommended Paleo? Thx much
A lot of people with food sensitivities have digestive problems from the grains and legumes. So Paleo works for most, and you may have to even go towards a FODMAPS diet, which is similar to Paleo with some vege and fruit restrictions.
Doctor, can you give me references to some websites to assist me with making the adjustment, from the 4-day Rotation diet I have now where I am eating meat,fish, etc., but also grains and lots of beans and legumes which are not a part of the Paleo diet. I don’t know how to juggle this. My goal is to not become diabetic at all cost. Thank you for your help!
I don’t have other websites to share on such. Everything you need to do so regarding your diet should hopefully be here and in the links to other articles on this site.
I was directed to your website when I was researching hypoglycemia on google.
You say in your article about hypoglycemia that you won’t go into what is “high quality protein” because you talk about it so much all over your website.
I searched at LEAST ten articles, including putting the words “protein” and “high quality protein” into your search bar and
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
Very frustrated.
Your comment is so inviting it makes me just want to help you out so bad.
I think I have been struggling with reactive hpyoglycemia for all 2013. It is a very scary thing indeed. I am doing better now than in April, but I don’t consider myself cured. I still get the random feelings of jitters, weakness, and it is odd that not eating breakfast seems to have something to do with it. I just find my body very sensitive now to what I eat, and sometimes I can get away with having something sweet like a dessert, and sometimes not. For over 10 years, I drank coffee and sugar to my hearts content, and stayed up late all the time. I am 32 now. During periods of reactive hypoglycemia, I would actually run over a mile, and feel better for a few hours, but than feel a little weak before dinner. My wake up call was last April, where I almost went to the hospital and broke out into a cold sweat and started vomiting. I got very faint and weak and was knocked out for a whole day. This was after experiencing a high amount of stress, drinking a spiked four cups of coffee, and a sugary dessert the night before. I really thought I was dying, and that bad experience has haunted me every since. Now, I am feeling a little weak, and had no breakfast, so I have been snacking on nuts the last two hours. I tend to think at least I am not type 2 diabetes cause I don’t have the excessive thirst or urination problem, but I get a lot of spells of just being way overtired, very hungry, or a little weak. It is also odd that In-n-out burger double double burger helped me a few times when I felt weak. I have not touched one cola or coffee in 4 months, and I literally go cold turkey on various foods.
Any advice? I am only about 15 lbs overweight at 195 at 5 foot 9 the last three years.
Sorry I don’t give personal advice. Check out the other diet related posts as they may help.
sir, i,m a 24 old girl and student. i’m in a situation of hypoglycemia. i,m a non vegetarian, a black mark found in the skin in right shoulder side then i consulted a doctor, he advice me to massage one oilment over the coloured part to cure black colour. yesterday i check my sugar which was 50 after one and half hours of meal. i feel weak and i cannot study, some times my memory become blank. can u advice me to recover hypoglycemia by control my food.?
Check out the other articles on this site for more info. No personal on-line advice sorry.
Hi Doctor Gangemi, I am 32 years old, with normal BMI. After having my daughter 4 years ago, I started experiencing high levels of hypoglycemia. I have seen numerous doctors, all telling me that I am 100% healthy even though I am exhausted and hungry a lot of the time. They tested my thyroid, iron etc. and everything is fine. But I am not, the quality of life has declined. I am exhausted and starving, and it leads me to binge eat and so the cycle continued for 4 years! I tried out low carb but think that I restricted it too low because after a few days the no carb symptoms were debilitating. Is low carb my only option, I really battle to make it through the “carb flu” as people call it. Even the dietician I saw was of no help, she just plugged in some numbers and gave me an eating plan of 700 calories!! Although not overweight, I do have some excess weight around my middle that doesn’t budge no matter how much I try.
We’d need to set up a skype consult to dig deeper into this inquiry.