18 Ways To Boost Metabolism, Energy And Weight Loss

18 Ways To Boost Metabolism, Energy And Weight Loss

        

       Way To Boost Metabolism

Metabolism is a word we see and hear on almost a daily basis. We are bombarded through media coverage with diet pills, supplemental powders, weight loss programs, and super food lists to help boost metabolism, have more energy, and burn fat away.
Unfortunately, starting at the age of 25, without proper diet and exercise, our metabolic rate slows down 5-10% each decade. However, this need not happen. The most important thing to remember when looking to avoid and fix a slow metabolism is eat a good, nutritious diet coupled with healthy lifestyle changes. That’s it!
The following are 18 simple ways that are proven to help boost your metabolism, give you that extra oomph throughout the day as well as for faster weight loss success.

1. Always Eat Breakfast

The most under-rated meal of the day. Eating breakfast is kick-starting the body and telling the metabolism to wake up because it’s time to work! Even its very name is important, breaking the fast. Fire up your metabolism for the day with a healthy breakfast like scrambled eggs on whole grain toast, or oatmeal with a sliced banana.

2. Caffeine Boost

Whilst for some caffeine may have health negatives; for some 1 cup can offer a metabolism boost of 5-8%. However limit the sugar, milk or cream. Whilst chocolate does contain caffeine if you’re going to opt for chocolate choose dark chocolate and limit your serving size to avoid high fat calories.

3. Be More Active

People generally think of being active as physical exercise like running and cycling but increasing your daily general activity boosts your metabolism and burns fat. Research has even shown the people that fidget have a higher metabolism than those who sit motionless. So while your parents may have told you to stop fidgeting but if you want to add a little fire to your metabolism then fidget away!

4. Eat Every 3 To 4 Hours

Reduce the serving size and eat more often seems to be the key to revving the metabolism throughout the day. This will also help prevent the “food coma” effect and energy dips during the day.

5. Eat Plenty Of Protein

Eating protein-rich foods help to keep you satisfied and has a slower, more even release of energy than regular fats and carbs. The body will expend more energy burning the protein through the digestion process as well.

6. Choose Whole Foods

Instead of juice, eat the fruit. You’ll not only get the heart healthy fiber but you’ll need to chew more which burns calories and increases your metabolism. Choose fibrous foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins.

7. Cut The Trans Fat

These fats originally start as vegetables oils that have water added to become solid at room temperature. Trans fats not only increase LDL cholesterol, and reduce HDL cholesterol but they slow down the metabolism by binding to fat and liver cells. Thankfully trans fats have to be labelled, but on your food labels look for hydrogenated oils.

8. Sprinkle On The Spices

The body responds to spices in metabolism boosting ways. Spices like capsicum pepper, jalapeños, habaneros, cinnamon and cumin can promote a temporary rise in metabolism by as much as 8%. If you notice when you eat those spicy foods your body reacts immediately, we get hotter and start to sweat. Whilst this increase isn’t a long lasting rise it’s also worth noting that people who eat spicy foods also tend to eat less food overall.

9. Spend Time In The Sun

Vitamin D deficiency is rising and so is metabolic syndrome, research now shows a definite link between low levels of vitamin D and reduced metabolism. To ensure you get your vitamin D, get outside in the Sun more, eat Vitamin D rich foods like fish, dairy products, eggs or take a supplement.

10. Increase Your Lean Tissue

The biggest factor to increasing your metabolism is your percentage of lean body tissue compared to fat. In basic terms muscle burns more calories than fat at rest, and simply torches the calories when active.

11. Add Resistance Training To Your Workout Schedule

One way to get the increase muscle mass and increase your metabolism is to do some resistance training. The Center for Disease Control recommends resistance training two or more days a week for all the major groups. Resistance training isn’t just about pumping iron, body weight exercises like push-ups and pull ups count too!

12. Exercise Twice A Day

We’ve learned about the EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or informally known as afterburn) metabolism increase and we can improve that EPOC by simply switching from one 90 minute exercise session a day to two 45 minute sessions a day. Even adding in a separate 15 minute workout hours after your previous workout will help boost the metabolism.

13. Go For The H2O

We all know that there is a link between hydration and weight loss, and that’s because ? of our body is water. In order for it to function at its best it needs water, but now there is an even better reason to drink water! Research has shown that it can increase our metabolism as much as 30% and it’s a sustained increase for up to an hour after drinking.

14. Go For Green Tea

Whilst it contains a little caffeine its metabolism boosting property is an antioxidant called Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) and combined with the caffeine can provide an added calorie burn of 70-100 calories per day.

15. Get More Omega 3s

More than just a current trend, omega 3’s help regulate our metabolism by increasing the fat-burning enzymes whilst at the same time decreasing the fat storing enzymes. Omega 3 can be found in oily fish, flax seed or oil, soybean oil, and walnuts.

16. Boost Your Metabolism With Vitamin Bs

Low levels of B vitamins like B12, and niacin can cause fatigue and slow the body’s metabolism. Foods rich in B vitamins include beans, broccoli, fish, and eggs.

17. Go Organic

Your thyroid is your body’s metabolism regulator and it is sensitive to toxins. Especially those toxins in fruit and vegetables. Researchers found that the organochlorines from pesticides resulted in metabolism decrease. Whilst the decrease may be small giving our body the food it needs without the pesticides might just be the boost you need While organic food can be more expensive, try to focus on just buying organic the dirty dozen to make the greatest impact.

18. Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is more than just dreams, it’s the body’s time to recover and repair. Whilst everyone is slightly different it’s recommended that we get 7-8 hours of sleep per night. It’s no coincidence that as nation we are getting less sleep than 100 years ago but have obesity rates spiraling out of control. When your body is sleep deprived the stress hormone cortisol gets increased, which causes an increase in appetite. Your body will also struggle to regulate carbohydrate metabolism which can lead to fat storage, high insulin levels and can be a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Things To Watch Out For

• Avoid drastic diets. Crash diets mess our metabolism up big time. The rapid weight loss experienced from crash diets, rather than boosting our metabolism actually slows it down. What happens then is once you fall off the fad diet, the weight comes back on, plus more weight, and the metabolism is slower which means you’ll struggle harder to get the weight off again. Avoid this by taking the healthy option of a balanced diet and exercise.

• Ditch diet soda. Whilst they seem like the perfect alternative to regular soda, what actually happens is that they initially trick our body by providing the sweet taste without the calories. Unfortunately this is short lived as our body responds to this by releasing insulin. Not only this but because the body didn’t get the calories it associates with the sugary taste it signals the stomach to increase your appetite. Ditch the diet pop and opt for water instead.

• Avoid alcohol. Metabolism wise its way worse than just the calories in the alcohol. To our body, alcohol is a toxin and it cannot store it, therefore it will try and get rid of it as quick as it can. It does this by shutting down your metabolism while it processes the alcohol. Not only that but alcohol intake increases cortisol levels and decreases testosterone, not good for weight loss or building muscle. The bottom line is alcohol has no nutrients the body can use, so think twice about that glass of wine!

• Reduce stress. This comes back to that cortisol hormone again. Once our stress levels rise so does the cortisol which means the metabolism takes a dive and our body becomes a fat storer rather than a fat burner. So try a yoga class, meditation, or just some deep breaths and counting to 10 before getting stressed.

• Reduce the TV time. While we all strive to be more active in our daily lives something countering this is sitting to watch television. Not only does sitting have a lower resting metabolic rate than standing but while we sit glued to the screen we tend to make poor food and drink choices which can also lead to reduced metabolism.

20 Healthy Tips To Lose Weight Without Exercise

20 Healthy Tips To Lose Weight Without Exercise

Trying to lose weight but don’t have time for the gym or access to expensive equipment? Do you need to lose weight for that wedding, your class reunion or vacation pool party? The following are some practical and effective tips that can help you lose those pounds quickly without breaking a sweat. You will need to actively decrease your caloric intake and modify your diet BUT it is possible for you to successfully lose weight safely and effectively by making a few changes to your diet and lifestyle without exercise.

1. Start By Setting Realistic Goals

Need to lose 30 pounds? Or 50? More? Losing 30 or more pounds is doable, but how about setting a short term goal like 15 pounds in 30 days. Fifteen pounds in 30 days is a realistic, measurable and achievable goal. Not enough? Would losing 15 pounds each month over the next 3 months (45 pounds total) change your body and health for the better? Of course it would. Avoid those dangerous crash diets that put your health at risk and usually fail, instead, follow these healthy diet and lifestyle changes that will help you successfully reach your new achievable weight loss goals.

Trying to lose weight but don’t have time for the gym or access to expensive equipment? Do you need to lose weight for that wedding, your class reunion or vacation pool party? The following are some practical and effective tips that can help you lose those pounds quickly without breaking a sweat. You will need to actively decrease your caloric intake and modify your diet BUT it is possible for you to successfully lose weight safely and effectively by making a few changes to your diet and lifestyle without exercise.

2. Drink More Water

An even healthier choice would be to drink ONLY water, some green tea or the occasional cup of coffee. All of those colas, sodas, bottled (or boxed) juices and frappucinos are loaded with syrups and sugar and calories that are making you, or keeping you fat, so drink more water instead.

Start your day with a cup of hot water with lemon to wake up your kidneys and liver and get that fat-flushing and body cleansing in motion.

Add green tea throughout the day to keep that fat- flushing action primed and the occasional cup of black coffee to speed up your metabolism and burn more calories.

You should carry a bottle of water around with you at all times and drink from it throughout the day. Be sure to drink water before meals and you’ll feel less hungry and take in fewer calories.

3. Skip The Cereal And Eat More Protein For Breakfast

Instead of the frosted flakes, have one or two eggs (search “egg muffins” for recipes) with a few vegetables and a small amount of cheese or a cup of Greek yogurt.

Eating protein for breakfast can speed up your weight and fat loss as it will help you to feel full longer and protein requires your body to burn up to 25 percent more calories to digest. Complete proteins also include the essential amino acids that support your body’s hormone and neurotransmitter function.

Be sure to choose lean proteins if you are a meat-eater, bacon and pork sausage are not healthy choices, try turkey sausage instead, and sorry, no biscuits and gravy.

4. Skip The Breads, Bagels, Pasta And Chips

Speaking of skipping certain foods (like biscuits), avoid these processed white flour calorie bombs that are sabotaging your hard work and efforts to lose weight. Breads, bagels, pasta, crackers, flour tortillas and chips are unhealthy and crazy fattening, one bagel for example, contains the same number of calories as five(5) slices of bread. These are all sources of seriously condensed calories that cause big spikes in your blood sugar and insulin levels. Even if you could replace the processed white flour with healthier whole wheat, the remaining ingredients would be high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils (trans fat). The spikes from these foods are similar to those caused by sugar bombs (read on)…

5. Cut Back On The Sugar

You already know that those donuts, candies, and cookies are nothing but empty calories, A LOT of empty calories, but the sugar they contain also manipulates your insulin levels. A constantly high blood glucose (blood sugar) level causes high insulin levels and eventually builds a tolerance to insulin which often leads to Type 2 diabetes.

For your short term weight loss, lower your sugar level and you will lower your insulin level, and lower insulin levels promote fat burning and weight loss. Less sugar equals fewer calories and less fat

6. Don’t Skip Meals

While you are skipping foods, don’t skip meals. Your body stores fat for emergencies, this dates back to a time when our ancestors were hunters and gatherers. We lived in times of feast or famine and during the feast cycles when food was plentiful, our bodies would store fat for those famine cycles when food was scarce, an emergency supply of stored energy for survival.

Today, food is plentiful and our bodies continue to store fat for survival and a famine that never comes. Skipping meals or extending meals beyond about four hours triggers your body’s survival instinct to store fat.

If you try to lose weight by starving yourself, you will literally have to fight your body to lose fat. You will also end up snacking on anything available or eating too much at your next meal.

7. Eat More Vegetables

You already know this rule, but it’s important. Vegetables will fill you up, help you feel full longer, take longer for your stomach to digest and contain fewer calories than any other food choices. If you go the salad route, be very careful with your dressings and skip the croutons and cheese toppings. If you are open to trying new and healthy vegetables, toss them (fresh or frozen) in your blender with a few ice cubes and a banana and drink them through a straw. Smoothies are a fast and convenient way to add healthy fruits and vegetables to your diet.

8. Eat More Nuts

Adding nuts to your diet can produce greater weight loss with added health benefits. A moderate amount of nuts or nutter butters can provide healthy calories, healthy fats and are an excellent snack.

Seeds and nuts can lower bad cholesterol, increase the good cholesterol and decrease your risk for vascular diseases. Snack on a handful throughout the day, or add them to your salads for some healthy crunch. Use them in moderation, they are high in calories, but the fiber and healthy fatty acids they contain will help you feel more full and maintain that sense of fullness longer.

9. Choose Healthy Snacks

As you will be eating smaller meals more often, including one to two low-calorie snacks in your daily diet will help when you’re trying to lose weight. The right snacks can actually help your weight loss.

Snacking is appropriate (and encouraged) when there is more than about four hours between your meals. Remember that skipping meals or going for long periods without eating may make it harder for you to stick to your planned meal or portion sizes and will also trigger that fat-storing survival mode.

Try to keep your snacks low-fat and around 100-200 calories. Examples of healthy snacks include a handful of nuts, one cup greek yogurt, a hard boiled egg, apple slices with nut-butter spread or celery with peanut butter.

10. Use Smaller Plates And Bowls

Now that you are eating smaller, healthier meals, use this simple but effective “portion control” trick and eat from smaller plates and bowls to make smaller servings appear larger.

You should also try to serve and eat your meals seated at the table and avoid eating while standing, on-the-go, or in your car. You will eat fewer calories seated at the table and avoid eating over the sink or within arm’s reach of the refrigerator as it becomes too easy to grab additional food (and calories).

11. Get More Sleep

When you stay up late and become more tired, you are more likely to grab junk for late-night snacking and late-night weight gain. Adequate sleep and recovery are also important for weight loss. People who sleep less than six or seven hours nightly or sleep poorly generally weigh more than those who get adequate and restful sleep. If you have to get up early start going to bed earlier to help increase your total sleep time. Make every effort to insure sound and undisturbed sleep, remove all of those electronics including your phone or computer from your bedroom and turn off the TV.

12. Weigh Yourself Everyday

It is important to track and monitor your progress as you are losing weight. Stepping on that scale regularly can help you see the progress you are (or are not) making and how effective your diet is progressing and whether or not you need to make changes.

Safe and permanent weight loss is about two to three pounds per week, and you are more likely to sustain that slow and steady weight loss in the future.

To be most accurate it’s best to weigh yourself at the same time of day and in the same clothing. If your weight loss levels off before you meet your goals, or you begin to gain weight, re-examine your meal plans and food journals and see if you can cut out any excess calories or bad food choices.

13. Write It Down

By keeping a daily diet or food journal you are forced to take a close look at the foods you’re eating every day. By keeping the journal private, you’ll be honest with yourself about what you’ve eaten and how much you’ve actually eaten. You want to eat healthier and your food journal will help you record your successes and failures and can provide a form of accountability. If you stick to your diet (your new healthy eating plan) your journal will also be something to be proud of. Speaking of accountability…

14. Get More Social

Speaking of accountability and sharing your successes, don’t be afraid to share with your online social media friends.

Celebrating your healthy food choices and weight loss successes on social media can actually promote additional weight loss thanks to the support you’ll get from those “friends” and will motivate you to continue to improve your efforts.

you will also feel obligated to stick to your eating plan and weight loss program as you feel accountable to your online community.

15. There’s An App For That

While you’re on your phone taking selfies of you and your food, take advantage of all of those new Diet and Health apps available. You can track your daily activity, what you eat, how well you sleep, and any other health statistics that you care to track. These apps are an easy, fun and often free or low cost way to record and monitor your weight-loss progress and goals.

16. Choose Healthier Cooking Methods

You have made the conscious effort to eat healthier foods, now do the same with how those foods are prepared. Say goodbye to cooking techniques that use a lot of oil, too much butter, or high-fat sauces or dressings before they cause your weight loss to level off or stop completely. Avoid deep fat frying, or most frying in general. Use healthier oils for cooking and when making your own dressings. Practice grilling, roasting, steaming and stir frying and healthy cooking styles that don’t add unnecessary calories to your meals.

17. Reward Yourself For Your Successes

Each time you reach a short term goal, you can renew your determination and commitment to reach that next goal, and ultimately that long-term weight loss goal. There is one rule though, don’t reward your successes with food, you are not a puppy who deserves treats and food rewards can trigger old habits and like binge eating or emotional eating. Instead, reward your hard work with (smaller) clothes, shoes or accessories. How about a short vacation or trip to the spa or theater or sporting event, you get the idea.

18. Avoid Stress

We are bombarded with stress every day, and stress leads to stress eating. That stress releases hormones and neurotransmitters in your brain that result in a craving for sugar, your brain literally craves sugar as eating sugar releases endorphins that relieve stress and make you “happy”. Stress causes stress eating and stress eating leads to a lot of sugar and calories. Learn to avoid stress or manage your stress before it leads to weight gain.

19. Gather Support

Find or build a weight-loss support group of family, friends or coworkers. You can share successes and failures, find ways to overcome obstacles that are preventing you from losing weight. Work together as a group to meet challenges, in person or online. You can also find support and help through clinicians or professionals experienced and trained in weight loss including physicians and dieticians.

20. Continue To Learn

Take the necessary time to research and learn everything you can about diet, nutrition, calories, healthy cooking and weight loss. Take classes, learn to read nutrition labels, read books and cookbooks and practice what you learn as you shop for healthier foods in the market, then as you prepare healthier and more nutritious meals in the kitchen. Incorporating these new lessons and the weight loss tips outlined here will result in a slimmer, trimmer and healthier YOU!

How To Lower Your Blood Sugar Levels Naturally

How To Lower Your Blood Sugar Levels Naturally

Hyperglycaemia (otherwise known as “high blood sugars”) occurs when your body is unable to utilize the sugars it consumes by turning them into energy. Although it mainly occurs with people who have the serious condition diabetes, there can be other causes. Hyperglycaemia can cause serious symptoms and lead to potentially-dangerous complications, but the good news is that it can be tackled, with effort and a few simple lifestyle changes.

What Could Cause High Blood Sugar?

There are two predominate types of hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar). These are:

·         Fasting hyperglycaemia, which is blood sugar levels higher than 130mg/dL (that’s milligrams of sugar per decilitre of blood) after not eating or drinking (other than plain water) for eight hours.

·         Postprandial (after-meal) hyperglycaemia, which is blood sugar levels higher than 180 mg/dL two hours after you eat.

·         A diabetic can have hyperglycaemia for a large number of reasons. The most common reasons are: forgetting to take your insulin or other glucose-lowering medication at the right time, eating too many carbohydrates for the amount of insulin you did take, or being less physically active than usual.

·         However, there are other causes that are less obvious. Being under the weather, feeling stressed, or having an infection could all affect your blood sugars, making them more prone to rise where they wouldn’t normally.

What Are The Common Symptoms Of Hyperglycaemia/High Blood Sugar?

There are two stages of symptoms in hyperglycaemia. If you are experiencing a large number of the early symptoms, take notice and monitor your blood sugars attempting to lower them if they are too high, as the later symptoms are particularly serious and uncomfortable, leading to a risk of dangerous complications. Don’t take chances with your health.

Along with blood sugars of more than 180mg/dL (130mg/dL fasting), other early symptoms include:

·         Blurring vision

·         Increased thirst

·         Frequent urination

·         Severe headaches

·         Fatigue (a feeling of being weak and tired all the time)

·         Unexplained weight loss

·         Difficulty concentrating

Later symptoms include:

·         Skin infections, particularly of the skin around the vagina

·         Thrush

·         Cuts and sores being slow to heal

·         Cold and insensitive feet, due to nerve damage

·         Erectile dysfunction in men

·         Loss of pubic hair

·         Weakening vision

·         Constipation and diarrhea

·         Damage to eyes, and kidneys

How Can I Lower My Blood Sugar Levels?

If your blood sugar levels are high, your priority should be to lower them, safely, effectively, and naturally. There are many simple ways to lower your blood sugar, and they can all fit easily into your lifestyle.

Ensure You’re Taking The Correct Insulin

If your blood sugar levels are consistently high, you may be taking the wrong levels of insulin for your lifestyle. Work with your specialist to ensure you’re taking enough insulin. But don’t alter your insulin levels on your own. Taking too much insulin could lead to hypoglycaemia, a potentially-dangerous condition where your blood sugars go too low, potentially leading to coma.

Walk

A bit of gentle exercise can help lower blood sugars, andhaving a walk is a perfect form of gentle, blood sugar regulating exercise that you can do without investing in expensive equipment. Make walking a part of your daily routine, walk to get a newspaper in the morning; walk the dog at sunset… A thirty minute walk a day will lower your blood sugars in a pleasant way that you can maintain long-term.

Don’t take part in strenuous exercise, as some diabetics find that can raise their blood sugars by causing biological stress.

Drink More Water

As we discovered earlier, hyperglycaemia can cause excess urination. This will leave you with the need to replace your fluids. Replace them with pure water, rather than sugared or caffeinated drinks. This will prevent dehydration while “flushing” the glucose from your blood.

Relax

Stress is one of the major non-food causes of hyperglycaemia. So put your feet up, watch a favourite movie, and be calm. Avoid situations you know place you under unnecessary stress. Just think, now you have the perfect excuse to not visit your mother-in-law!

What Foods And Drinks Can Help Lower My Blood Sugars?

No one food should be regarded as a magic potion. There is no food that, if eaten, will instantly lower blood sugar levels, curing hyperglycaemia and leading to perfect health. There are, however, a number of foods that help keep blood sugar levels controlled and should be eaten regularly as part of a balanced diet.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a really useful carbohydrate for diabetics and anyone seeking to control their blood sugar levels and feel fuller for longer. It’s full of terrific slow-burning, soluble fiber to help you regulate your hunger. Because of this, it will keep your blood sugar levels stable over a long period of time. Have this for breakfast for slow-burning energy.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon has been in the news recently, found to reduce the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. But I bet you didn’t know that it could reduce your blood sugar levels. A 2013 review found that consumption of Cinnamon lowered fasting blood glucose levels, and raised good cholesterols (HDL), while lowering bad cholesterols (LDL). So sprinkle some in your apple compote today.

Buyer beware: Saigon Cinnamon contains risky amounts of the blood-thinner Coumadin. Ceylon Cinnamon may also contain the blood-thinner. Do not consume cinnamon in large quantities.

Vegetables

A diet high in non-starchy vegetables (such as spinach, green beans, and broccoli) is high in fibre and low in fat, helping lower blood sugar levels and maintaining them at a healthier level. There is also value in starchy vegetables (such as potatoes and corn), however these are higher in carbohydrates and need to be considered as part of your daily carbohydrate allowance.

A study found that 43% of patients with Type 2 Diabetes who followed a vegan diet for twenty-two weeks found an improved reaction to their diabetes-control medication.

Bananas

Some people think being diabetic means you can’t eat bananas anymore. However, that pleasantly-sweet fruit is a perfect dessert for diabetics, as it is bursting with fiber, helping you feel fuller for longer, as well as being full of that necessary workhorse of the vitamin world, vitamin C – necessary to fight disease and to build a strong nervous system and healthy skin.

Just remember that bananas are a form of carbohydrate, so count them in your daily total.

Garlic

t’s a bad time to be a hyperglycaemic vampire, because (according to one 2012 study) garlic reduces blood sugar. It may also increase the amount of insulin available for use in diabetics. So dice up that garlic, and whip-up a delicious garlic and tomato sauce today; not only will it taste just scrummy, it will also be wonderful for helping to lower your blood sugars.

Grapefruit Juice

A study found that grapefruit juice increased insulin-sensitivity and lowered blood sugar levels in mice, suggesting it may be helpful for patients with diabetes. However, grapefruit juice can interact with a number of medications, so check your medication leaflets, or consult your doctor or pharmacist, before you add grapefruit juice to your diet.

Avocados

A study found that grapefruit juice increased insulin-sensitivity and lowered blood sugar levels in mice, suggesting it may be helpful for patients with diabetes. However, grapefruit juice can interact with a number of medications, so check your medication leaflets, or consult your doctor or pharmacist, before you add grapefruit juice to your diet.

Avocados

Blueberries are rich in anthocyanins, an antioxidant that protects against obesity, which can be a major cause of Type 2 Diabetes. Blueberries are also full of soluble fiber. Adding simple blueberry smoothies to your daily diet for only six weeks has been found to make your body more sensitive to insulin, lowering your blood sugar levels, and stabilizing them over a longer period.

Try adding a handful of blueberries to your oatmeal for a sweet, sustaining treat.

Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is a popular health food, reputed to have many health-assisting properties and to change gastrointestinal enzymes. But, did you know that there may be some facts to support this theory?

A 2010 study by Liatis et al found that when individuals with Type 2 Diabetes add vinegar to a meal with a large glycaemic index (in this case, mashed potatoes with low-fat milk), postprandial blood sugar levels do not rise as much as they do in individuals who consume the same high G.I meal without the addition of vinegar. The Liatis et al (2010) study suggests that the consumption of vinegar may be helpful in attempts to fight hyperglycaemia.

If you want to use apple cider vinegar, it’s not unpleasant-tasting. It’s a little sweet and a little tart, and will go very nicely in a vinaigrette dressing, a marinade, or even to help give tomato sauces a kick.

Yogurt

Yogurt can be a healthy natural dessert for patients with hyperglycaemia, if you choose a yogurt with added probiotic. Probiotics can aid blood sugar control. But make sure you choose yogurt with no additional sugar, and (as yogurt contains milk) count the carbohydrates towards your daily total.

Honey

It seems counter intuitive that something so sweet would help to lower blood sugars, but there is evidence that it may do just that. Honey has been found to improve control of blood sugars in a patient with diabetes. Choose natural honey products, and add it to your oatmeal, or spread some honey on some toast for a tasty way to stabilize your blood sugar levels.

Popcorn

Popcorn itself is a very healthy snack, full of fiber that helps you feel fuller for longer. Because popcorn is made with a whole grain (corn), it doesn’t cause your blood sugars to spike as much as other snack foods might. However, be aware of what you put on your popcorn. Don’t load your popcorn with butter, salt or sugar. Instead, use a natural sugar-free alternative, such as stevia.

Peanut Butter

A study found that consuming peanut butter not only leaves patients with diabetes feeling fuller for longer, but also keeps blood sugars stable at a lower level throughout the day. This is true, even if the patient has a meal with a high glycaemic index for lunch.

Try adding peanut butter to toast for a healthy breakfast that will see you through until lunch, and keep your blood sugar levels stable all day.

Foods And Drinks To Avoid

Coffee

Unfortunately, research by Lane et al (2007) has shown that regular consumption of caffeinated coffee reduces the ability of a patient of with Type 2 Diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. The same is true of other caffeinated beverages. So it may be time to trade-in your caffeinated drinks for decaffeinated alternatives and give your blood sugars a helping hand.

Milk (In Excess)

Milk contains protein, which is essential for stabilizing blood sugars, and can be used in an episode of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar levels) to help raise and stabilize blood sugars. However, if your blood sugar levels are consistently high, look at the amount of milk you drink, as one cup contains 15 grams of carbohydrate. Don’t avoid milk entirely, as it is an essential provider of Calcium, but ensure you add the carbohydrates from the milk you drink into your daily allowance.

Protein Bars

Protein bars claim to offer the nutritional value of a meal in a compact bar. Ignore the hype. They are, more often than not, little more than candy bars, bursting with sugar and saturated fat. To avoid appearing to have high-levels of carbohydrates, many protein bars use sugar alcohols, which cannot be completely digested, leading to bloating and diarrhoea, and raising your blood sugars levels.

Sugar-Free Food

Most foods labelled sugar-free will cause a spike in blood sugar levels. This is because they contain a large number of carbohydrates. Also watch out for sugar alcohols such as xylitol and sorbitol, which cause uncomfortable dietary symptoms and raise blood sugars.

Dried Fruits

Fruit makes for a healthy snack. But be aware that dried fruits pack a huge amount of carbohydrates into a tiny serving, and that will make your blood sugars spike. Only three dates contains 15 grams of carbohydrate, the same as one cup of milk or a 1/3 cup of pasta.

Sports Drinks

Some sports drinks contain as much sugar as cola. It’s not necessary to drink sports drinks to replenish after a short work-out; just take a long drink of plain water.