Keys to keeping glucose levels steady
DEAR DOCTOR: I’m trying to lower my blood glucose levels, but I have a sweet tooth. What raises blood glucose more — the sugar from fruit or foods with refined sugar?
DEAR READER: Managing your levels of blood glucose, which is the measurement of how much of a certain sugar is dissolved in the blood, is important to good health. Glucose, which comes from the foods we eat, is a major source of energy to cells throughout the body. However, blood glucose levels that remain consistently high can lead to a variety of health problems, including prediabetes, a condition that frequently leads to Type 2 diabetes.
Blood glucose starts its journey in the form of carbohydrates, which are the main nutrients in foods like bread, pasta, rice, fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and some dairy products. When we eat these foods, the digestive process frees the sugars within the food and makes them easily available to the body.
Glucose, the smallest sugar molecule, moves from your small intestine into your blood. There, it is distributed throughout the body to provide energy to the cells. To get from
the blood into the cells, glucose needs the help of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas.
Not all foods release glucose in the same amounts or at the same rate. Foods like sugary breakfast cereals, pastries and candy are basically glucose bombs. But naturally sweet foods like apples, strawberries or yams, which contain carbohydrates but are also high in fiber, release glucose more slowly.
However, if you turn that apple into juice, you’ve just accelerated the rate at which your blood glucose will rise. But if the candy bar you’re eating contains a handful of nuts, the fiber they contain will slow the rate of glucose absorption.
A handy tool known as the “glycemic index” has taken much of the guesswork out of maintaining healthy blood glucose levels. The glycemic index, or GI, ranks each food relative to how it will affect your blood glucose.
Eve Glazier, M.D., MBA, is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health.
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