Foods To Help With Low Blood Sugar?

Hi everyone. I'm new here. Wanted to ask you guys a question...

So, I don't have diabetes, but I get low blood sugar alot, most often when I'm at work... What is good to eat to help low blood sugar get higher? Also, sometimes my blood sugar gets so low that I get really shaky, and I feel like I have to cram and eat(we only get 15 minute breaks at work), so most times if I do that, I feel sick afterwards(and then moving around so soon right after eating is not fun...)...What is a good food that would help with low blood sugar and make me feel full but I wouldn't have to eat alot of it and feel sick? (I have had my gallbladder taken out so maybe this has something to do with the feeling sick?) I had been eating peanut butter Nabs crackers, but I kind of got an aversion to those, so now more recently I have been trying different combinations of tunafish, cheese sticks, those Jennie-O turkey stick things, a Muscle Milk milkshake thing(but I'm no athlete...Are those still ok to drink with such high numbers of protein and other things?), and rice. Any help on this would be appreciated!


And something else I was curious about...Why does this happen? I have some early days(have to be at work at 10am), so that means I get up at 8:30am, eat breakfast(bowl of GrapeNuts cereal and MinuteMaid fruit punch juice), leave the house at 9:30am, and on the 15 minute ride over, I eat multiple knife-fulls of peanut butter from a jar. Even with this, I still get shaky about 11am alot of times... What's a good breakfast to eat to prevent the shakiness when I have early days like this?

To answer your question about why this happens, it's probably because the Grape Nuts is causing a blood sugar spike after you eat and then a drop, which is when you crash. To prevent the 'spike and crash', you need to stay away from heavy carbs at one meal.

If it's natural peanut butter with NO added sugar, it's a good choice but then of course, what should you put it on? That's the tricky part. You could try celery sticks that you have cleaned and cut, ready in the fridge, with the peanut butter. Or, you could try cream cheese with the celery sticks, too.

Besides the omelet, think outside the box for breakfast food, like lettuce wraps: a couple of big lettuce leaves that you have wrapped a slice of cheese and a slice of ham or turkey. (That is one slice of turkey, one slice of cheese wrapped up in one lettuce leaf with a dab of mayo of mustard if you want.) Eat three for break fast!

Thanks, Lanie! Yes, I've seen my doctor. It was a while back, but she had told me that it happens to her, too(she's skinny like me), and that I should just eat more. I've had my blood checked when I was at the doctor a couple times, but it's always been fine; I've not really been shaky then. But if it happens at home and I get shaky, I've usually checked it(my mom has a meter), but since I've been working, that was a while back. How would I go about getting a meter of my own? Does the doctor have to give me one or do I just go to a drugstore and pick any one up? I'd have to ask my mom what my blood sugar was one of the times when I was at home. She probably remembers one of the numbers.

And for the tunafish, I think I might want to pick something else, actually. I have stomach issues and with my gallbladder being taken out, tunafish is not always my stomach's friend, haha. Too much mayonaise, I guess...

Wow, I didn't know GrapeNuts had that many carbs!! My mom and I were at the grocery store today and I was asking her why GrapeNuts was good to have and that you said about the high carbs, and she said the fiber content should be enough to hold me through... But I picked out some cottage cheese so I'm going to try that and see how it goes.

Thanks for the breakfast suggestions! I think I may have to think of something else, though, because celery and omelets aren't really my favorite foods(no offense). What does the celery do, though? Does it add more protein?

And, well, about the Muscle Milk stuff, I've tried the vanilla flavor(way too sweet) and that has 25g protein and 8g carbs, and then there's the chocolate flavor I haven't tried yet, which has 25g protein and 11g carbs. There's also a Core Power brand with a chocolate flavor that I tried and like that has 26g protein and 28g carbs.

(sorry about the late reply)

Thanks for the different food combos, msOuchie!!

Eggs don't have carbs. Bacon probably doesn't, but, again, you have to read the label on the packages because there are lots of different kinds of 'smoked' bacon with maple or apple flavor and I honestly don't know if that adds carbs. I rarely eat bacon but when I do ( ), I buy uncured, center-cut bacon because it has less fat.

You can use that link I had put into one of my posts above about the Grape Nuts and search through it for all different kinds of foods to check out not only the carb content but nutrition in general.

In general, all food that is made with flour like pasta, cakes, cookies, crackers, etc., food that has sugar in any form even honey or real maple syrup, rice, corn, and potatoes all have a lot of carbs. If you eat a lot of this in one sitting, it seems your blood sugar will spike high and then drop making you feel shaky, so it's best to eat more protein and vegetables and a very small amount of a carb in order to keep the blood sugar more level.

Good sources of protein are meat, chicken and fish, of course, but also nuts and beans - however, beans has a lot of carbs, too, so you need to be careful about how many beans you're eating.

On a serious note, I have read that episodes of hypoglycemia like this are not unusual in young people who have family members with diabetes. If you have anyone in your family with diabetes (parents, grandparents, siblings), then if I were you, I would learn as much as I could about blood sugar now so you can help control it in later years.

Yes, I think you're dealing with something genetic here because of your uncle and mom and because you have PCOS.

Dehydration doesn't create diabetes, but severe dehydration can make your blood sugar rise. This can happen if you've got an illness that makes you vomit and have diarrhea especially. At that time, a person needs to drink fluids but if that's not possible, then he or she needs to be hospitalized.

Type 2 diabetes has many different levels and many different medications to control it depending on different factors. Some need insulin, some don't. Some produce insulin erratically. Many are insulin resistant (like me) and these people may be able to control their blood sugar with diet and exercise to a point. Some just can't do that. Since carbs raise blood sugar if a diabetic continues to eat a lot of food with carbs, then that person will need more medication and probably eventually insulin as the pancreas will stop producing insulin.

Here is a website that you might share with your mom and uncle. You will learn many important facts about blood sugar here: www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

Here is what the Mayo Clinic says about PCOS: www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pcos/basics/definition/con-20028841

The best advice anyone can give you is to learn as much as you can about your body and your own health. Don't be afraid to ask your doctor questions. This is how you learn. And if there is something you don't understand when the doctor tells you something, ask him or her to say it again or repeat it back to the doctor to make sure you "get it".

Also, an endocrinologist is a specialist who may be more helpful than a general doctor.

I'm glad you found us here! I hope you had a good day today. What did you eat?

Well, I think we've given you lots of information and some links to websites to help you understand blood sugar and food better. Cereal, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, rolls will all raise blood sugar.

I hope you that you have shared the information and websites with your mom because you say she has diabetes. Maybe she would like to become a member of HealingWell?