The importance of blood sugar balance for great health

Blood sugar (glucose) is your main source of energy. It influences how hungry or energetic you feel. Blood sugar is created when you break down any carbohydrate you eat- from a healthy carb like quinoa to a chocolate-chip cookie.

The importance with blood-sugar is to keep it balanced: not too high and also not too low. It's also important to understand that glucose rises after meals are normal:

• what matters is how high, how long, and how often

• and the person’s metabolic health overall

Concerns arise when glucose remains elevated for long periods or when the body regularly struggles to bring levels back to baseline.

Persistent dysregulated glucose metabolism — especially over years — is associated with an increased risk of conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic dysfunction. However, many symptoms like fatigue, mood changes, or hormonal imbalances can have multiple causes and require comprehensive assessment.

Optimising our glycose levels allow us to lower the symptoms we are experiencing. If you eat with every meal adequate amount of protein, fat, fibre together with carbohydrates- you naturally help to keep the blood sugar more stable and have consistent energy throughout your day.

How is blood sugar regulated in your body?

Your pancreas creates hormone called insulin, that gets released into the blood stream to regulate blood sugar when you eat. The normal range for blood sugar (empty stomach) is 4 - 5,5 mmol/l. Insulin transfers the blood sugar into blood stream and into your cells for immediate energy or storage for later use. If you eat too much sugar or other refined carb-rich foods that get way faster converted into blood sugar, then your pancreas goes into overdrive to produce all the necessary insulin for the glycose to be stored in the cells. Such an insulin surge tells your body that there is plenty of energy available and that it should stop burning fat and rather start storing it. Yes, insulin is a fat storage hormone.

Low and high blood sugar

Low blood sugar occurs when the insulin surge causes too much of blood sugar to be transported out of your blood. It can leave you feeling hungry, tired, shaky and anxious. As a consequence, you crave more sugar and carbohydrates, hoping that these will get you to a better place. But in reality, they start the cycle all over again. And your body ends up storing more fat.

Contrary, high blood sugar occurs when your insulin is unable to transport enough blood sugar out of your blood.

Blood sugar and weight Loss

To help with long term healthy weight loss or healthy weight maintenance, you need to keep your blood sugar in balance in between the meals and where there is no excess insulin produced by the body.

How can you balance your blood sugar?

If you avoid or keep simple carbohydrates and sugar consumption to a minimum, you can naturally help to balance your blood sugar. Definitely, do not starve yourself as this causes your body to produce stress hormones that prevent weight loss. The resulting low blood sugar from starvation causes your body to go into muscle burning, slowing down your metabolism. Eating balanced meals during the day is what you should be focusing on.

Simple carbohydrates include different types of sugar, such as sucrose (table sugar), fructose (fruit sugar (also in honey)), lactose (dairy sugar), glycose. You can read my blog post on sugar and why it's best to lower its consumption it here.

All of the simple carbohydrates get metabolised fast and therefore most likely cause an insulin surge in the body. Think how you feel next time when you eat for example an egg with avocado for breakfast or when you drink a glass of orange juice and have a white bread with jam on it. The fructose in the juice and the sucrose in the jam will have you probably craving and eating throughout the day.

The easiest and best way to stabilise your blood sugar is to eat protein, fat, fibre and greens with each of your meal.

Fat- if you consume fat alone, it has no influence at all on circulating blood sugar. If you eat it with your meal, it slows down the absorption of your meal therefore helping to avoid spikes in blood sugar. I am talking here about the healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, ghee, coconut oil).

Protein- it helps to keep blood sugar levels steady. Again, if you consume protein by itself, it has no impact on blood sugar. But you should be mindful and not consume too much protein as it may converted into glucose. A good size of protein per meal is the size of your palm. I have written a blog post on the highest protein containing foods. as well as the importance of consuming sufficient amount of protein at every meal at different ages in your life.

Fibre- same as fat, fibre helps to slow down the absorption of nutrients, including glucose. All vegetables and fruits contain fibre and are best consumed in a whole state, rather than juiced. When you would want to juice your vegetables and fruits is when you are unwell and need a fast dose of vitamins and minerals into your body. But at other times, consume whole vegetables and fruits, make smoothies mixing the two and adding some protein and fat into it to slow down the absorption of carbs. You can read more about the fibre, why we need it and from which foods we can get it here.

Greens- when you add greens like spinach, kale, broccoli sprouts, sunflower sprouts, you add minerals and vitamins to your meals. For example magnesium in green vegetables increases your insulin sensitivity.

Other tips helping you to keep your blood sugar in balance

Different foods affect our blood sugar different ways. For some people eating a banana takes their blood sugar up high, for the others it does not create such a spike. Our bodies are different and how food affects us, is influenced by many factors- what our diet looks like during the longer period of time, what is the state of our health, how much we exercise, how much we sleep, what are our stress levels etc.

Continuous glycose monitor

Continuous glucose monitors are devices that measure glucose levels continuously throughout the day by sensing glucose in the fluid just under the skin. They can provide insight into how meals, movement, sleep and stress influence glucose patterns, which may help inform food choices for some individuals. However, these devices were originally developed as medical tools for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and for individuals with gestational diabetes, where frequent glucose monitoring is a cornerstone of clinical management.

For people without diabetes, CGM devices can show normal glucose fluctuations, but interpreting the data accurately can be complex and sometimes misleading, because healthy glucose levels naturally rise and fall after meals. Experts caution that using CGMs without clear clinical indication may not provide meaningful health benefits for the general population and should not replace standard metabolic assessments.

If you are considering using a CGM to explore your glucose patterns, it’s best to do so in collaboration with a qualified healthcare professional (such as an endocrinologist or physician). They can help you determine whether it is appropriate for your situation, explain what normal and abnormal glucose values mean for you specifically, and guide how to apply the insights in a way that supports your overall health goals rather than focusing on isolated glucose readings alone.

Some wellness-focused platforms, such as Levels and Veri, offer CGM-based programs for people who want to explore their metabolic responses, but the results should still be interpreted with care and in context with a healthcare professional.

Eat your food on the plate in the right order

The order in which you eat foods in a mixed meal can influence how your body responds to carbohydrates. Research shows that starting a meal with non-starchy vegetables and protein, and eating starchy carbohydrates later, may lead to lower post-meal glucose and insulin responses compared with eating carbohydrates first. This effect appears to be due to a combination of slower gastric emptying, increased fibre and protein intake, and hormonal signals from the gut that help regulate glucose absorption.

For example, eating salad and vegetables before starchy foods like pasta may help your body absorb carbohydrates more gradually and reduce sharp short-term blood sugar rises. However, this strategy should be viewed as one part of a balanced eating approach rather than a standalone magic solution, and individual responses can vary.

Opt for more savoury breakfast

Meals that combine protein, healthy fats and fibre tend to slow glucose absorption and may lead to smaller post-meal glucose improvements compared with carbohydrate-heavy meals, but individual responses vary.

Examples of savoury breakfast:

• Lentils or quinoa or buckwheat with soft boiled egg and avocado

• Oats with seeds and almond butter

• Smoothie that contain not more than half a cup of fruit or berries and contains good fat and protein

• Warm chia pudding with hemp hearts and ghee

• Rice cake with avocado, salmon and sesame seeds

• Sourdough bread with scrambled eggs, kale, cherry tomatoes, kimchi

• Sourdough bread with hummus, sauerkraut, hemp seeds and sprouts

• Chia seed pudding with raspberries, nut better and hemp seeds

• Ground chia seeds blended with cocoa and avocado

Move after the eating

After eating your energy goes from your head and limbs into digestion system. That's why many can feel tired after a meal. Your muscles are your ally here, where they help to soak up the circulating glycose from your blood stream. A 10 minute walk after a meal is a great choice or taking your dog outside for a walk.

Eat fat or protein with your carbohydrates

Don't eat sweet or starchy food without adding some protein, fat or fibre on it. You could put greek yoghurt on your cookie if you want to eat it. Eat your sourdough bread with some goats cheese spread and avocado on it. If you have some rice, have some eggs, chicken, fish with it.

The less high blood sugar spikes you have after breakfast and lunch, the better you feel throughout the day.

If you are looking to understand more about better eating habits for your body, lifestyle, don't hesitate to contact me for nutrition counselling and health coaching at info@katrinpeo.com. Learn more about my services under Services.