If you’re struggling with anxiety, sugar may not be the first thing to come to mind but, believe it or not, your blood sugar levels can make a stark difference in your day to day mood and emotional experiences. In today’s article, Dr. Bristow unpacks the relationship between sugar and anxiety while offering some dietary tips and tricks to lower your sugar levels, and to keep your mental health in check.
Have you ever noticed how eating sugary foods can affect your mood? One of the most important ways of preventing stressful and anxious episodes is to keep your blood sugar regulated. Many of us are actually quite sensitive to alterations in our blood sugar levels, but we often do not recognize this as a contributor to anxiety. When blood sugar is high or low, it can mimic or worsen stress and anxiety symptoms.
Just take a look at children: it’s all too common to see a child bounce off the walls, fidget, act out, become aggressive and unable to focus after some sugary treats, followed by the inevitable crash: feeling emotional, overwhelmed and spacey as their blood sugar drops quickly. Sugar affects us adults too, but we’ve grown accustomed to feeling the way we feel, believing it’s simply our norm. If you’ve ever done a sugar detox, you’ll know what I’m talking about–sugar is an addictive substance that absolutely impacts our emotions. When we don’t get our regular fixes, we really notice it’s absence and it is not pretty!
If you are someone who feels dizzy, shaky, sweaty, flustered, emotional, stressed, disconnected, unable to think clearly, or you get headaches when you’re hungry or when you consume too much sugar or caffeine, this is especially important:
This chart shows the difference between types of foods and the effect they have on your blood sugar when you eat them. The Y-axis represents your blood sugar and the X-axis represents time: this is a graph of the speed at which your blood sugar rises and falls from a fasting state.
represents pure sugar, in the form of high fructose corn syrup. You can see how quickly and steeply it rises within 30 minutes and how it actually brings your blood sugar levels below fasting within one hour of consumption!
represent a carbohydrate (complex sugar molecule) with some fiber and protein. There is a slower and less drastic rise and fall in blood glucose.
represent a carbohydrate which is higher in protein and fiber than oats, again you can see a slower and less intense rise and fall in blood sugar.
represents fats and protein, which does not release glucose right away (hence a decrease in blood sugar as fasting continues until glucose is released). Again we see a moderate rise in glucose similar to the kidney beans, but staying at a moderate level for longer with a slower gradual decline.
To decrease anxiety, you need to get off the sugar rollercoaster! The more intense the peak and dip, the stronger anxiety becomes, and the harder it is to get off the ride.
To lower your anxiety, focus your meals and snacks around protein, fiber, and healthy fats. Make carbohydrates and sugar a secondary element that naturally occurs in your healthy meals and snacks. For example, snacking on an avocado with a few rice crackers, hummus and veggies, nuts and berries.
How you break a fast (i.e. breakfast!) is the most important as it sets your blood sugar up for the day. A common breakfast such as oatmeal is still possible, but try beefing it up by stirring in a teaspoon of coconut oil, adding a handful of nuts and seeds (each) or a big scoop of natural unsalted/no-sugar-added nut butter to slow the release of glucose and keep you going longer and happier!
I hope you found this useful. If you live in Calgary and you’d like to learn more about how the food you eat is affecting you and you would like some help optimizing your diet, you can book an appointment with me here.