Top 3 Daily Tips for Balancing Blood Sugar:
When it comes to maintaining healthy thyroid levels, one thing we cannot overlook is the importance of balanced blood sugar. If your blood sugar is not addressed, you’ll never stop the hormonal cycles that are preventing your thyroid from healing.
Top 3 daily tips for balancing blood sugar:
Balance each meal with protein, fat and carbs.
Because your blood sugar is affected by all three of the key nutrients, you must balance each and every meal.
25% fat, 25% protein and 50% carbs
(We discussed what a proper fat, protein and carb are in the previous articles from the thyroid series!)
This provide your thyroid with all of the vital nutrients that it needs to operate properly.
Always eat breakfast to establish proper blood sugar
You don’t eat while you sleep, so you literally fast all night. When you’re hypothyroid your liver has trouble storing glucose, which makes stress hormones are at their highest in the morning and leads to more blood sugar imbalance. This is why it is so important to eat within an hour of waking up, the sooner the better!
How you start your morning will set the tone for your entire day, and the longer you are unbalanced the harder it is to reduce your stress hormones and balance your sugars.
This is going to boost your metabolism as well, and soon enough you’re going to wake up HUNGRY- this is when you know things are changing!
Eat every few hours to prevent blood sugar drops.
Oftentimes with hypothyroidism, your liver cannot store the sugar it needs to carry you through five or six hours between meals. So our goal is to take the stress off your liver and allow it to do what it needs to do to become healthy again.
Sipping on salted orange juice or pineapple juice throughout the day, (I’m obsessed with salted pineapple juice!!) or right when you wake or before bed is a wonderful way to keep sugars balanced and give a great dose of electrolytes. You make this by adding a good pinch of Celtic sea salt to a glass of orange or pineapple juice. Super simple!
Adrenal cocktails are also a beautiful thing to consume between meals as well. Here’s a quick write up from Yarrow Fox:
This “adrenal cocktail” recipe - a simple, effective and inexpensive way to help support your adrenals (and thyroid!) on a foundational level resulting in a healthier, happier you!
The adrenal cocktail includes essential vitamin and minerals that are depleted in adrenal fatigue, namely vitamin C, sodium and potassium.
Did you know high amounts of vitamin C are used when producing cortisol?
The adrenal cocktail helps replenish this powerful antioxidant and provide a healthy dose of sugar. In an ideal world, you would use freshly squeezed organic orange juice but let’s keep it real, not many of us probably have the time for that! When purchasing orange juice from the store, look for organic if possible and NOT from concentrate. Without pulp is best. You can also use real cranberry, guava or pineapple juice if you prefer.
Next up is sea salt, a beautiful source of essential electrolytes and minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium that are key for blood pressure, adrenal function and energy production. It’s best not to use pink Himalayan salt (you’ll learn why in an upcoming post, I know, I know…crazy right?! All part of the unlearning you’re doing here!). We prefer Maldon, Icelandic or Celtic sea salt. Links in comments to some of our favs!
Potassium is the last key ingredient of the cocktail. Potassium plays a role in kidney function, cardiovascular health (ie blood pressure, regular heart beat), muscle contractions, transmission of signals through the nervous system and more! There are many sources of potassium that can be used in the cocktail including aloe vera juice, coconut water or Cream of Tartar.
Optional ingredients that add an extra boost to the adrenal cocktail are collagen and cream.
Collagen helps regulate blood sugar and provides essential amino acids to support healthy cortisol production and a healthy gut.
Cream provides saturated fatty acids that help stabilize blood sugar levels and provide your body with energy. You can use either coconut or regular cream.
Here are some suggestions on when to mix up and consume this nourishing and replenishing drink!
• One hour after breakfast or lunch, when energy levels are low (10-11AM and 2-3PM-ish)
• As a pre/post workout drink
• Right before bed if you experience restless sleep and wake up in the night around 2-3AM
• For breakfast is you are usually not hungry upon waking. If you are used to intermittent fasting in the past and skipping breakfast, this is a great way to ease yourself into consuming something first thing and a great way to kickstart your metabolism! “
Disclaimer: Medical Disclaimer. The information posted is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for general information purposes only.
5 Major Benefits of Balancing Your Blood Sugar:
1. Down-regulates stress hormones which are currently suppressing your thyroid.
2. Ensures that your liver has enough sugar to convert inactive-T4 thyroid hormone into active-T3 thyroid hormone to be delivered to your cells.
3. Promotes the shift of your metabolism back toward the healthy use of sugar as energy.
4. Improves production of your highly-protective hormones to offset the negative anti-thyroid effects of other imbalanced hormones and boosts your thyroid function.
5. Improves and stabilizes your energy and mood throughout the day.
6. Decreases your risk of allowing your blood sugar to drop so low that you ruin your diet.
