The Science of Sugar Levels
Have you ever wondered why you get cravings and feel like you need to snack, sometimes not long after you’ve eaten? Well, much of it comes down to your sugar levels.
The Sugar Rollercoaster
Shortly after eating, your body breaks down carbs to glucose, causing your blood sugar levels to rise. Insulin then pushes this sugar into your fat cells.
Your sugar levels then fall and you produce ghrelin, the "hunger hormone", which makes you peckish again.1 Most people spend all day like this.
Eat, Spike, Crash, Repeat.
Find balance
The alternative to this sugar rollercoaster is to keep your sugar levels balanced.
When you’re balanced, you experience higher energy levels and can lose weight more easily.
Plus, since you no longer have sugar crashes, you may even have increased focus, improved mood and less food cravings.
We’re all unique
Everyone’s body is unique and so are your sugar level responses. One person's sugar levels might spike from cookies, but not bananas... and another person the other way around.
Here is a study proving this on a large sample of people.
Check out Figure 2G for the cookies & bananas example!
Also this more recent study dug further into the results to find out what caused the unique responses.
See this for yourself!
Thanks to the invention of CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitors) and the myLevels program, you can see your sugar level responses for yourself and discover your unique best diet!
If you're interested in learning what to eat to reduce cravings, be in control of your weight and maintain energy levels, then we at myLevels are here for you!
1. More on Ghrelin: This paper shows how high fat meals result in reduced ghrelin (ie "feeling full") for 6 hours on average. On the other hand high carbohydrate meals result in reduced ghrelin only for 3 hours, and then it increases to higher than it was even before eating. See Fig2.D in this paper.
