A Hypoglycemia Diet
Can Help Control
Low Blood Sugar Symptoms

A hypoglycemia diet can help you manage blood sugar problems.

What Is This Condition and What Causes It?

This is a condition of abnormally low levels of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Symptoms are varied and include fatigue, dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, depression, anxiety, hunger, rapid heartbeat, sweating, insomnia, confusion, and tremors.

Americans increasingly have this condition because of poor eating habits such as consuming lots of simple carbohydrates like cakes, cookies, soft drinks, biscuits, corn syrup, table sugar, white bread, and candy, and not enough complex carbohydrates like beans and peas, whole grain bread, oatmeal, and various whole vegetables and fruits.

What Some Experts Say about the Causes

David Wolfe in The Sunfood Diet Success System writes that eating animal foods will aggravate the system such that hypoglycemia and diabetes will manifest and that (aside from the obvious culprits of dangerous high fructose corn syrup and white sugar) cooked hybridized plant starch is the real guilty party.

Contrast his opinion with that of Dr. John McDougall, who offers two potential mechanisms:

1. The many kinds of fats in the American diet inhibit insulin function, leading to insulin resistance. This is seen with hypoglycemia and adult-onset diabetes (type 2).
   
   
   
2. Removing and disrupting fiber in plant food, through processing, causes blood sugars to drop. For example, if a whole apple is processed into apple sauce, the pancreas will produce more insulin when you eat the apple sauce than if you had eaten the whole apple. This process intensifies if you consume juice instead of the whole fruit. Grinding grain into flour would cause the same reaction.

For a third opinion, in Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, and James F. Balch, MD, write that low blood sugar is due to poor dietary habits that include consuming high volumes of simple carbohydrates, sugars, alcohol, caffeine, and soft drinks, and not eating enough complex carbohydrates. In addition, they say that high stress levels are a contributing factor.

What’s the Best Diet for Low Blood Sugar?

Many years ago I was diagnosed with this condition and prescribed a hypoglycemia diet to follow that involved eating frequent meals (6 to 8 meals a day) of high protein and fat. That may still be the standard medical treatment, but our more enlightened experts recommend something different.

There’s the raw food diet recommended by David Wolfe. As part of this program, he reminds people that it’s important to remember that people with sugar metabolism problems still need to get some sugar, and that sugar should come from sources like raw, organic natural fruits (with seeds), unfiltered wild honey, and unfiltered agave cactus nectar. For those with low blood sugar, he recommends choosing low-sugar fruits initially, then moving to high-sugar fruits eventually.

Dr. McDougall’s recommendations for a hypoglycemia diet are to change to a starch-based diet, with no refined foods. At first, limit fruits. Eat frequently, maybe six or more times a day at the beginning. Make sure to eat plenty of food, and don't be concerned about gaining weight (because starches make you thin). If your problems don’t resolve, it could be that your symptoms may be due to a problem other than low blood sugar levels, such as a food allergy. It might be wise to see your health practitioner.