Glucose in the blood is essential for the normal functioning of all vital organs. After taking carbohydrate-containing food, the body processes it and extracts the necessary energy source. After glucose enters the bloodstream, the pancreas begins to work. It produces a special hormone called insulin, which delivers the energy resource contained in glucose to the body’s cells. Insulin is responsible for the sugar content, reduces its excess. The presence of sugar in the blood is a constant value, determined by doctors as the norm. With its increase or decrease, a malfunction occurs in the body, a person begins to feel unwell. Knowing which product lowers blood sugar and which increases, you can avoid feeling unwell and developing a serious illness.
Blood sugar
“Blood sugar” is not a medical term, but colloquial. Doctors often use the concept of "glucose in the blood." This definition is the most accurate.
How to know the glucose level? The methodology for identifying this indicator appeared in the seventies of the 20th century. The patient takes blood from a finger or vein, and with the help of chemical reactions, a special colored liquid is obtained. A special device, a photoelectric calorimeter, determines the amount of glucose by the color intensity. Blood sampling for tests is performed on an empty stomach.
Now widely used is a device for measuring sugar indicators, which can be used at home. This is a glucometer that allows sick people to constantly monitor their glucose levels.
The following figures are considered normal:
• For children under 14 years of age - 2.8 - 5.6 mmol / l.
• For women and men under 59 years old - 4.1 - 5.9 mmol / l.
• People over 60 years old - 4.6 - 6.4 mmol / L.
Here are the general data. You need to consider what kind of blood is taken for analysis. When taking capillary blood, an indicator of 6.0 mmol / L is considered prediabetes. With venous blood sampling, this indicator is considered normal.
If the results of the studies are indicators that exceed the norm, they speak of hyperglycemia. Various diseases can lead to this condition. One of them is diabetes.
What is diabetes?
It is called the "sweet plague" of this century. As a result of it, serious complications arise that can lead to death of a person. Diabetes mellitus is a disease in which the pancreas produces an insufficient amount of the hormone insulin, which leads to an increased content of glucose in the blood stream. In such people, all metabolic processes in the body are disrupted, which leads to serious complications.
Two types of diabetes
Type 1 - when insulin is not produced at all. People with this diagnosis are forced to constantly make insulin injections. Therefore, the first type of diabetes is called insulin-dependent.
Type 2 - when the pancreas produces enough insulin, but it cannot provide glucose uptake by tissue cells. With this type, continuous injections are not required. Treatment is with sugar-lowering oral medications and a special diet. The doctor explains to the patient what foods can lower blood sugar, and recommends them for a daily diet. This type of diabetes is called non-insulin dependent.
How does nutrition affect blood sugar?
After eating, blood glucose is necessarily increased for some time. Normal values are 8.9 mmol / L after sixty minutes, and 6.7 mmol / L after one hundred and twenty minutes. If there is a suspicion of the development of the disease, a repeated blood sampling is done after eating. If everything is in order in the body, then after eating the pancreas will immediately release insulin, which will normalize glucose readings.
Jerusalem artichoke for diabetes
In diabetes with high blood glucose, you must strictly adhere to simple nutritional rules; Know exactly which product lowers blood sugar. One of these products is Jerusalem artichoke. The use of rhizomes similar to potatoes leads to a noticeable decrease in glucose.
Necessary diet
But this is just one of the products. What products can lower blood sugar in diabetes can be obtained from your doctor or by reading the literature on this subject.
Whole grain and fiber should be present in the diet of any person. A healthy person can eat white rice without problems, while a person with diabetes is not recommended. To prevent blood sugar from rising, you need to eat a brown sprouted appearance of this product. It is also useful to add beans to such rice.
Lowering sugar to diabetes
People with this type of ailment need constant monitoring by specialists. How to lower blood sugar to normal in diabetes? This can be done in many ways.
1. Medication. These drugs are prescribed by your doctor. They are taken both orally and by injection, depending on the type of disease.
2. Home remedies. These can be various teas prepared independently, for example, from blueberry leaves or dandelion roots; decoctions of herbs that help reduce sugar. Also, taking a small amount of cinnamon daily helps to achieve the desired result. The use of onions and garlic both boiled and raw, cabbage and beet juice is useful for lowering blood glucose. All listed home remedies contain inulin, which plays a major role in normalizing carbohydrate metabolism. It is impossible to state unequivocally which product lowers blood sugar. Each of the above products helps fight diabetes.
3. Compliance with the diet. It is necessary to organize food so that products containing fats and carbohydrates do not enter the body, exclude white bread, sweets, potatoes, sparkling water, alcohol from the diet; Eat foods that lower sugar. Do not neglect radishes, cabbage, radishes, eggplant, pumpkin and other vegetables. Sweets can be replaced with natural sweeteners, for example, honey, fructose, sorbitol. You need to remember which foods lower blood sugar, and strictly adhere to the recommended diet.
Sugar-lowering foods
Each product has its own glycemic index. The higher it is, the faster glucose is released from it when it enters the body. Diabetics should not be consumed. They need low glycemic index options. To find out which product lowers blood sugar, you can use the special table of glycemic indexes of products compiled by doctors. It should always be kept at hand.
Using this table, you can make a list of products that lower blood sugar.
1. Oatmeal. This porridge, made from oatmeal on water, not only reduces sugar, but also is an excellent preventive measure against diabetes.
2. Walnut. All nuts contain fiber, protein and vegetable fat, which slow down the absorption of glucose.
3. Cinnamon. It is added to porridge, yogurt, compote, fruit drink and so on. With the regular use of this aromatic spice, sugar is noticeably reduced due to the content of polyphenols, fiber and magnesium.
4. Sweet pepper. It is recommended to use red varieties, because they are the ones that better saturate the body with vitamin C and antioxidants. In addition to lowering glucose levels, this vegetable is able to protect the body from infections and inflammation.
5. Millet. It contains a lot of fiber and effectively lowers sugar.
6. Fish dishes. It is recommended to use at least twice a week.
7. Broccoli. Of all the varieties of cabbage, it is most useful. Due to the high content of polyphenols, it effectively fights high sugar.
8. Dishes from legumes. Eating peas, lentils and beans helps lower sugar.
9. Strawberries. Really useful berry, plucked in the season, and not bought at the height of winter in a supermarket. Contains fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C.
10. Jerusalem artichoke. Raw tubers are useful. Contains insulin and fructose. It is one of the most recommended for diabetics.
11. Garlic. It regulates and normalizes the functioning of the pancreas. Due to which, the production of insulin increases.
Products such as basmati rice, eggs, milk and dairy products, and buckwheat can also be added to this list.
Sugar Free Products
By carefully studying the glycemic index table, you can find out in which foods there is no sugar. These include: seafood, fish, cheeses, meat. This type includes paste made from durum wheat. But they contain a small amount of complex polysaccharides, which are very slowly absorbed by the body and do no harm.
So, having such a chronic disease, you need to remember that carefully selected foods should be eaten. They will help to effectively deal with such a serious ailment. Under the constant supervision of doctors and patients themselves, there is blood sugar in diabetes. What products lower how to use them correctly - a person can get this information from the attending physician.