What dietary taboos should you pay attention to if your blood sugar is high?

The most important dietary taboo that people with high blood sugar should pay attention to is never as simple as not eating sugar at all. Instead, it is to avoid invisible traps of raising blood sugar, and at the same time, do not take the detour of extreme sugar control.

Not long ago, I met Aunt Zhang who lives in the unit next door at a community free clinic. It was found that her blood sugar had been high for half a year. She didn't touch milk tea and cakes. She drank sticky multi-grain porridge with sugar-free biscuits every day. As a result, her fasting blood sugar increased from 6.3 to 6.8 during a follow-up test. I felt extremely aggrieved. I helped her figure it out for a long time before I discovered that she had stepped into two big pitfalls: the porridge was too rotten and the starch was completely gelatinized. Drinking it raised blood sugar faster than drinking sugar water. ； Although the so-called sugar-free biscuits do not add sucrose, the main ingredient is refined wheat flour, and a lot of shortening is added to improve the taste. If you eat three or four pieces at a time, the sugar level will rise no slower than white steamed buns.

When controlling sugar, many people only focus on the added sugar on the surface, but they don’t know that there are many invisible minefields in daily diet. For example, the Kung Pao Chicken and Fish-flavored Shredded Pork that I love to order every time I go out to a restaurant. The thin layer of corn starch is full of fast-absorbing carbohydrates. Eating one plate is equivalent to eating half a bowl of rice. ； There are also ketchup, salad dressing, and barbecued pork sauce commonly used at home. They look salty and fragrant, but in fact, each spoonful contains several grams of added sugar. Just squeeze it twice, and your daily hidden sugar intake will exceed the standard. Some people like to drink Laohuo soup, which they think is light and nourishing. In fact, the layer of oil on the soup will slow down blood sugar metabolism. Blood sugar that originally dropped in one hour may still remain high for two or three hours.

There are many friends around me who immediately stopped eating rice and noodles as soon as they discovered that their blood sugar was high, and only ate vegetables and meat. They said that the ketogenic diet can control sugar quickly. There are indeed small sample studies proving that short-term ketosis can quickly lower blood sugar, but there is still a lot of controversy over the impact of long-term ketosis on blood lipids, liver and kidney function, especially for people with underlying kidney disease and gallstones. Blind attempts will increase the burden on the body and are completely unnecessary. Another controversial point is whether you can eat fruit. Many people think that high sugar needs to be insulated from fruits. In fact, as long as fasting blood sugar is stable below 7mmol/L and does not exceed 10mmol/L 2 hours after a meal, you can eat half a fist-sized low-glycemic fruit, such as strawberry, grapefruit, and crisp apple, at 10 a.m. or 3 or 4 p.m., but if you don’t eat fruit at all, you will lack dietary fiber and vitamins, slow intestinal peristalsis, and be detrimental to long-term blood sugar stability.

In fact, our blood sugar regulation system is like a reservoir with limited elasticity. Don't pour too many fast-glycemic foods at once and cause the water level to skyrocket, and don't let the reservoir dry out until it cracks if you don't drain it at all. When eating staple food, add more beans and grains. Each meal should be as big as your fist. Pair it with a large amount of green leafy vegetables and a palmful of high-quality protein. One meal is just two bites of vegetables, and the blood sugar level will naturally be stable. It’s okay if you’re craving for something sweet occasionally. For example, if you eat a small piece of mooncake, cut down one-third of the day’s staple food, and go for a half-hour walk after eating. Your blood sugar won’t be too outrageous. Instead, you’ll have to endure anxiety every day, which will easily affect blood sugar fluctuations. Don’t penny wise and pound foolish.