Constantly high blood sugar levels are dangerous to our health. It may lead to diseases like diabetes, heart disease and stroke. It also stops the fat burning process because high glucose induces insulin secretion and insulin is a storage hormone that promotes the uptake of nutrients into cells. As a result, mobilization and utilisation of fat from the fat cells ceases.

Accordingly, if optimum health and maximum fat burning (weight loss) are goals of yours then you must find ways to keep your blood sugar stable as often as possible.

One way to do this is by eating foods that help to lower your blood sugar level. In this article we will cover the foods that help to lower your blood sugar and why they are effective at doing so. If you make an effort to incorporate these foods into your current eating habits they will go a long way towards improving your health and assisting your fat-burning (weight loss) efforts.

There are 4 categories of foods that lower blood sugar. They are:

• Low Glycemic Index (GI) Foods
• Foods That Improve Insulin Sensitivity
• High Fibre Foods
• Foods Containing Other Macronutrients

Low Glycaemic Index (GI) Foods
Low Glycaemic Index (GI) foods are carbohydrate-containing foods that causes a slow release of glucose into the blood stream. If someone tends to have high blood sugar on a regular basis, putting a greater emphasis on low GI foods in their diet may be beneficial in helping them achieve normal blood glucose levels over time.

Also, adding low GI foods to meals slows down the absorption rate of other carbohydrate-containing foods, therefore lowering the GI of potentially high GI foods.

Some low GI foods include:

Oats, brown rice, pasta, pears, apples, peach, plum, sweet potato, peas, sweet corn, yoghurt, and milk.

Foods That Improve Insulin Sensitivity
There are several foods that may help improve insulin sensitivity. Foods containing omega 3 oils as well as foods containing glucose disposal agents (GDAs) are good examples.

Omega 3 fatty acids come mainly from fish and flax seeds (and their equivalent oils). They are also present in small amounts in green leafy vegetables.

Fats/ oils make up the membranes of all body cells (phospholipids). As a result, having a greater intake of high quality fats means that the integrity of cell membranes also improves. By improving the quality of cell membranes, the passage of nutrients both into and out of cells improves because the insulin sensitivity improves.

By improving the passage of glucose into cells, omega 3 fatty acids can help to lower blood sugar.

Glucose disposal agents (GDAs) are compounds that assist the body in disposing of glucose effectively and therefore keeping insulin levels low. They tend to be herbs or are components of food like minerals.

Here are some examples of GDAs: chromium, selenium, vanadium, gymnema sylvestre, alpha lipoic acid, fenugreek seed extract and cinnamon extract.

Some foods that contain GDAs are: whole grains, shellfish, meat, fish, egg yolk, cheese, yeast, cereals, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon and legumes.

Often it may be difficult to include all of these foods in your diet on a daily basis and often the levels of the GDAs in these foods may be low. As a result, it is definitely worthwhile taking supplemental forms of GDAs.

People who are interested in losing body fat need only take GDA supplements with lunch and dinner. However, people who have some degree of insulin resistance, namely type 2 diabetics and women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, should take GDAs 3 times a day with meals; ideally, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

High Fibre Foods
Fibre, particularly soluble fibre, is a component of food that has the effect of slowing down the absorption rate of carbohydrate and therefore lowering its glycaemic index.

For example, an apple has a much lower glycaemic index than apple juice simply because there is fibre in the apple and the apple juice has had its fibre component removed. Fibre has a tendency to 'dilute' the carbohydrate, which slows absorption.

Fruits and vegetables are the best source of both soluble and insoluble fibre and should be the foundation of your diet.

The standard recommendation of 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit a day is ideal to ensure you get an adequate amount of fibre in your diet as well as many other 'phytonutrients' that come from these foods.

Foods Containing Other Macronutrients
Foods that contain the other macronutrients (protein and fat) may also help in lowering the blood sugar. They are able to do this when they are eaten in a meal containing carbohydrate. This is why eating 'complete meals' (containing carbohydrate, protein and fat) is so important.

Protein is similar to fibre in that it has a 'diluting' effect on carbohydrate and therefore slows the absorption rate of the carbohydrates in a meal.

Some examples of protein-containing foods include: fish, chicken, red meat, eggs, cottage cheese, beans, nuts and seeds.

Fat lowers a food's glycaemic index by slowing down its passage through the gastro-intestinal tract. This slows the absorption rate of carbohydrate.

Good examples of this are chocolate and ice-cream. Both of these foods contain a consider¬able amount of fat along with carbohydrate and both have relatively low glycaemic indexes. However, this certainly doesn't mean you should increase your intake of these foods because both are very 'calorie dense' due to the large amounts of fat and sugar contained in them. They are good examples, however, of how fat slows down the absorption, and utilisation rate of carbohydrate.

Other examples of predominantly fat foods are: oils, nuts, seeds, avocado, and butter.

Overall, in order to achieve normal range blood sugar levels and avoid the symptoms of high blood sugar, it is imperative that you select the foods that lower blood sugar that we have covered here.

By doing so you will improve your health dramatically, avoid many health problems in the future and lose all the weight you want.

If you would like to get a free diabetic diet plan, Click Here!.

Stephen Smith is the part-owner of Body Concepts, an Australian supplement company, and Focus On, a health and lifestyle magazine. Stephen has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 18 years and after completing a science degree from the University of Western Australia, spent many years researching the most effective ways to help people lose weight quickly.



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