Jeremiah Farias (00:00.078)
Have you heard that blood sugar spikes are damaging, but you’re not sure why that is? More people are becoming aware that chronic spicing blood sugar are problematic, however, very few understand why that is. In this video, I’ll review the dangers of blood sugar spikes and how we can avoid them. Whether you have diabetes, pre -diabetes, or just looking to optimize your health, this video is for you.

Hi, my name is Jeremy Afarias. I’m a functional registered dietitian and I help people suffering from blood sugar dysregulation issues. Conditions like type 2 diabetes, pre -diabetes, and even low energy levels. I hope you enjoy today’s content. Those with diabetes and possibly even pre -diabetes have likely been told by their medical provider or their dietitian that avoiding spikes in blood sugar is wise. They may not understand entirely why this is the case, but…

they’ve been told to monitor their blood sugar after meals, ensuring that it doesn’t go past a certain threshold. And nowadays, even more health conscious individuals without diabetes, pre -diabetes, are aware that spikes in blood sugar are problematic, and so they’re wanting to make various diet and lifestyle changes to mitigate how many spikes or how high blood sugar can go after a meal. And this is wise. So the reason we want to avoid experiencing large fluctuations in blood sugar,

is because those fluctuations actually increase oxidative stress and cause endothelial dysfunction. This is seen in those with diabetes and without diabetes. And large fluctuations in blood sugar are actually more damaging than someone having just chronically elevated blood sugar levels. For example, you can have two people with the same hemoglobin A1C. Let’s use 6 .4 as the A1C in this example. As a quick reminder,

A1C is an average blood glucose of about three months. Now you can have the two people with the same A1Cs. One is due to chronically elevated blood sugar levels. Let’s say it’s around above 120 -ish. And the other person, they might have more lower or normal blood sugar levels, but they experience chronic fluctuations, or rather spikes in blood sugar throughout the day. And on average,

Jeremiah Farias (02:14.03)
both people’s blood sugar comes out to about 120 -ish or about 6 .4 A1C. The person with the fluctuations causing that elevation in A1C is going to experience more health problems than the person with just chronically elevated blood sugar levels. So I mentioned a concept known as endothelial dysfunction. And endothelial dysfunction is the reason why many with type 2 diabetes and other blood sugar dysregulation issues,

experience greater rates of cardiovascular disease. Spikes in blood sugar are causing oxidative stress and damage to the arterial system. Now there’s a difference between a rise in blood sugar and a spike in blood sugar. And that’s something I feel that is missed in some circles, health circles, blood sugar, circles, and even the low carb space. It is perfectly normal and ideal, actually, to have a rise in blood sugar.

after a meal, namely a meal that contains carbohydrates. That rise in blood sugar is going to be providing glucose to various cells of the body that require it, require glucose and then use that as a primary fuel source. So you’re able to put resources and energy towards those systems. Now a spike though, that’s what we’re wanting to avoid, but what constitutes a spike in blood sugar? So as blood sugar levels approach,

round 140 milligrams per deciliter and greater. You have activation of something called the polyol pathway. And I thank nutrition researcher Dr. Chris Mastrojohn for bringing this mechanism and connection to my attention. And the polyol pathway is when blood sugar levels or glucose levels get too high, they begin to convert glucose into something called sorbitol. So in this study, I’ll pull up a chart from it.

It shows that group two, which is those with elevated cerebral spinal fluid glucose levels, which are the green squares on this graph, they begin to congregate, as you can see, above the plasma glucose level of around eight millimoles per liter. What does that mean? So eight millimoles per liter equates to, when you convert it to milligrams per deciliter, about 145 or 144, sorry, milligrams per deciliter.

Jeremiah Farias (04:34.35)
So you start to see sorbitol levels increasing above normal at this point. Okay, so what’s the big deal about glucose levels or elevations in glucose levels activating something called a polyol pathway, which is converting glucose, excess glucose, to sorbitol? Great question. The reason this is problematic, I’ll pull up an illustration to expand or show this, is the polyol pathway,

is catalyzed by an enzyme known as aldose reductase. And in this illustration, you see AR, that’s aldose reductase. And this impairs the recycling of something called glutathione. Glutathione is an extremely important antioxidant known as the master antioxidant of the body. And so the activation of the polyol pathway is then impairing the body’s antioxidant status, which can then contribute to increased oxidative stress.

So unfortunately, polyols are cytotoxic and neurotoxic. Cytotoxic refers to toxic to the cells of our body, generally, and then neurotoxic is specifically to nerve cells, nerve tissue. And excessive amounts of polyols are known to cause nephropathy, retinopathy, and polyneuropathy. So nephropathy is damage to kidneys, retinopathy damage to the retinas of the eyes. So,

Clearly, we want to avoid spicing blood sugar because those spikes activate this polyol pathway once blood sugar levels start to approach above 140 -144. Now, I understand this information might be a bit dense, so please let me know down in the comments if there’s anything that I can clarify. Also, have you heard this information before going into why blood sugar spikes are damaging? I’d be curious to know how many of you are familiar with this information, these mechanisms already.

And if you’re getting value from this video, please don’t forget to hit that like button. If you’re looking for some practical information that you can begin applying today, start improving your blood sugar metabolism, be sure to check out the link below where you can get my free guide, five steps to improving your blood sugar metabolism. So we reviewed the dangers of spikes in blood sugar. Now we’ll discuss how we can avoid spikes in blood sugar. I’ll be reviewing three tips that we can begin implementing.

Jeremiah Farias (06:56.494)
to avoid spikes or experiencing spikes in blood sugar. The first has to do with the importance of balanced meals and their role in mitigating or reducing blood sugar spikes. The second concept is known as macronutrient sequencing. And the third is the importance of movement and utilizing movement in certain circumstances to also avoid spikes in blood sugar. So let’s start with the importance of balanced meals.

If you’ve seen any of my previous videos, I have highlighted the importance and the value of having balanced meals. This means that a meal contains a high quality protein source, a whole food carbohydrate source, some fats, healthy fat sources, and a non -starchy vegetable that you tolerate from a digestive standpoint. There are papers that highlight even peering carbohydrates with protein reduces how high blood sugar levels go. So at a minimum, if one is having a meal,

but also having a snack, try not having carbohydrates by themselves. So this is not fruit in isolation or other carbohydrate sources, but instead trying to pair that with a protein source. This could be something like high quality beef jerky as the protein source paired with fruit. This can also be some macadamia nuts with fruit. So you have the fat and the fruit. What each of these macronutrients does when paired along with the carbohydrate source,

it slows down the release of glucose into the bloodstream and you have a slower release you’re going to avoid then spikes in those blood sugar, the blood sugar levels. So the next tool we can discuss is macronutrient sequencing. Macronutrient sequencing is very similar to having balanced meals except it takes it one step further. So let’s say we have a balanced meal of some steak, we have some asparagus cooked in some butter and then roasted potatoes.

all macronutrients, high quality protein, whole food carbohydrates from the potatoes, healthy fat, and we have some non -starchy vegetables. The macronutrient sequencing tells us to eat certain foods before the carbohydrates, namely having something like the asparagus with the butter, non -starchy vegetable with the fat, then the high quality protein source, the steak, and saving the roasted potatoes for last. And.

Jeremiah Farias (09:18.926)
This is actually going to dramatically improve glucose levels after the meal and reduce the likelihood of experiencing a spike. When they do the studies having the carbohydrates first, you do see a significant increase in blood sugar levels compared to when carbohydrates are saved at the end. The reason that macronutrient sequencing is so effective is it appears to increase a compound known as an entretin called GLP -1, glucagon -like peptide -1.

And I’ll read a bit about what that’s doing. So GLP one from the gut, it’s from the gut and it ameliorates secretions of insulin and glute, gone and delays gastric emptying, thereby improving post -brandial glucose excursions, dietary fiber intake before carbohydrate intake also significantly reduces post -brandial glucose elevation. So it’s believed that the protein in the meal is what’s really significantly activating that GLP one.

So the third and final tool that I wanted to review is movement. And specifically, it’s walking after meals. One study that we’ll be looking at today found that 30 minutes of brisk walking after a meal containing a significant amount of carbohydrates significantly improved postprandial or after meal glucose levels. And I’ll pull up some charts and graphs from this paper because it’s really, really cool to look at, in my opinion. So here in the first chart, we have the

individuals, they’re consuming around 0 .7 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight. And so for a 160 pound person, they’re consuming 54 grams of carbohydrates. They are then remaining sedentary for two hours. They had their blood glucose levels checked. Then in the same individual,

They had the same dose of carbohydrates. So let’s say in the 160 pound person, 54 grams of carbs, but this time they walked briskly for 30 minutes and then had their glucose levels checked. So they had their glucose levels checked all throughout the two hour mark. I believe it was every 15 minutes. This paper had both males and females. They are all healthy participants and the carbohydrates that I’m mentioning, the 0 .7 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Jeremiah Farias (11:39.918)
was in the context of a mixed meal. So they weren’t carbohydrates by themselves. Another important piece. And the next group, they did the same thing, but instead they increased the carbohydrates. Instead of 0 .75, they went to 1 .5 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight, also with a mixed meal. So this means 160 pound person is having around 110 grams of carbohydrates.

with a mixed meal. They remained sedentary for two hours, blood sugar levels were checked every 15 minutes. They then had them consume the same meal with the same amount of carbohydrates and had them walk briskly for 30 minutes and again rechecked, or had their blood sugar levels checked throughout that timeframe. And you’ll notice in the graph, there’s a dramatic difference in glucose levels with no walking compared to 30 minutes of brisk walking. And…

Walking is so effective at lowering postprandial glucose levels or after meal glucose levels because in walking we’re activating a very large muscle group, our legs. And in general, the muscles, our arm muscles are capable of absorbing excess glucose. But because we’re brisk walking, we are forcing the muscles or encouraging the muscles to

use and take up the glucose and then use it for energy. So this dramatically improves the control and how high glucose levels are going after a meal when we’re walking. While this study looked at specifically brisk walking as the intervention to lower post -branding of glucose levels, as you can imagine, any form of movement is going to be beneficial in mitigating how high glucose levels go after a meal. This could be house chores.

just staying active in general, doing dishes. It could even be exercise if one was wanting to do that. But the most important thing I’d say is simply to move versus remain sedentary after a meal if we’re wanting to improve our post -brandio glucose levels and avoid any spikes in blood sugar, especially if we’re someone who is struggling with our blood sugar control at the moment. The walking, these tools that I have suggested,

Jeremiah Farias (14:06.638)
are extremely effective at helping to mitigate the negative effects that blood sugar spice can cause. And walking after a meal though can be a great practice to slowly integrate into your life and it’s going to come with a lot of benefits, not only from a blood sugar standpoint, you’re getting exercise, you’re moving your body, you’re preferably getting even outside and there’s a lot of additional benefits that come with it.

Now are you someone who’s been tracking their blood sugar levels for a period of time and you’ve noticed even when incorporating whole food carbohydrate sources like fruits, tubers and squashes, you’re still experiencing spice in blood sugar. Or maybe you’ve gone periods of time where you’ve reduced carbohydrate intake, you’ve noticed improvements in your blood sugar, yet when you’re incorporating or reintroducing, incorporating these carbohydrate sources slowly, the blood sugar levels begin to rise again.

If that’s the case, just know this is very common and I see this a lot in the people that I work with. However, I want to bring to your attention that this may highlight that we’re not getting to the root of what’s causing our blood sugar dysregulation issues in the first place. If we take away carbohydrates in attempts to improve our blood sugar metabolism, we’re actually not getting to the root of it. We’re just taking away the challenge. And so when we reintroduce them, if we haven’t got to the root of it, those problems are going to come back. And again, this can be a,

really frustrating thing to navigate and this is where I can come in and assist you. And so if you’re interested in working with me one on one, definitely be sure to schedule a free 30 minute discovery call. The information for that is gonna be down in the description below. If you like this video, I believe you’ll also like my video going over the best carbohydrate sources to include if you have diabetes or blood sugar dysregulation. I’ll link to it at the end. And if you enjoy this video, you got a lot of value out of it, please be sure to hit that like button.

subscribe so you don’t miss any new videos. I hope you have a wonderful day. Take care.