We’re kinda obsessed with blood sugar balance around here.
Blood sugar plays a role in weight management, modulating hunger signals, mood regulation, and decreased inflammation - what’s not to love? Even better, creating blood sugar balance doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your diet. Simple changes go a long way in ensuring your blood sugar levels shift subtly through the day - never too high, never too low:
1. Increase protein within each meal you consume.
Aim for 30g = roughly a palm-size portion of chicken, fish, beef, etc., (or 3 scoops of collagen powder or 5 eggs or 30g of a protein powder.) Most protein bars only have 10-15g protein, so they need to be combined with a little something else, such as a couple of eggs, or a scoop of collagen powder, or cup of bone broth to round out a meal.
2. Add the perfect salad
Take an already existing meal that you like and add a big handful of mixed greens, including a bitter green (such as arugula, 1-2 tsp. of olive or avocado oil, 1 tsp. of balsamic or apple cider vinegar). Bitter greens, healthy oils, and vinegar all play a roll in supporting healthy blood sugar balance.
3. Add fiber
Adding veggies, ground flax, hemp hearts, and chia seeds to your meals amps up the fiber and stabilizes your blood sugar. For example:
- Sprinkle chia seeds or hemp hearts onto porridge or cereal
- Add spinach or other veggies to spaghetti or lasagna
- Add zucchini 'zoodles' into your pasta (1/2 noodles, 1/2 zoodles)
- Add beans to burritos, toast, breakfast bowls, and salads
4. Add healthy fats
- Olive oil on your greens (see above)
- 1/2 avocado with your meal
- Dollop of nut or seed butter into your smoothie or porridge, or on your toast
5. Enhance your smoothies with:
- Protein, such as a protein powder
- Healthy fat, such as a nut or seed butter
- Fiber, such as chia seeds, hemp hearts, or leafy greens
6. Swap out grains for protein at breakfast:
Such as a protein smoothie, egg bites, or ground turkey hash
7. Replace blood sugar spiking grains. Examples of stabilizing carbohydrates:
- Bean noodles, shirataki noodles, or zoodles, rather than grain-based pasta
- Egg or coconut-based wrap rather than flour-based
8. Make grain flour swaps
Simple Mills almond flour cracker, cauliflower crisps, whisps, protein crisps, instead of grain flour crackers (wheat, whole wheat).
9. Skip the bun
Use iceberg lettuce as a wrap for a beef or bison burger patty instead of a bun.
10. Replace the blood sugar shocking sodas and juices
There are plenty of subtly sweet (or savoury!) drinks such as:
- Bubly
- La Croix
- Electrolytes
- Unsweetened nut milks
- Bone broth
- Herb or fruit-infused water
- Apple cider vinegar drinks (Bragg ACV Refreshers)
