Just How Low Is Low Blood Sugar

How low is low blood sugar?

Generally speaking, your blood sugar should never dip to 70 mg/dL or lower. When a person’s blood sugar dips lower than it should, this is known as hypoglycemia. It is a dangerous condition that could even be life threatening if not attended to. While hypoglycemia is more of a problem for diabetics than for non-diabetics, it should be noted that 70 mg/dL is the standard limit for what constitutes low blood sugar.

Causes and Symptoms

Hypoglycemia can be caused by one or more factors. It is often brought on if either glucose or insulin is released into the bloodstream too quickly. Taking insulin or diabetes medication at the wrong time can also cause hypoglycemia. Those who have diabetes should be sure to eat enough at mealtimes and for snack, especially if insulin has just been taken.

Skipping meals, drinking alcohol and/or changes in exercise habits can also bring about hypoglycemia if a person has diabetes type 2.

Some of the many symptoms of hypoglycemia include:

double vision
headaches
nervousness
rapid heartbeat
shaking
sweating
fatigue

However, there is also the danger of a person not feeling any of the above mentioned symptoms before more serious symptoms set in. Some of the most serious symptoms of hypoglycemia include fainting and seizures.

Blood Sugar Goals

Knowing how low is low blood sugar is not enough. A person needs to take action to ensure that his or her blood sugar levels remain stable. Generally speaking, a healthy person’s blood sugar levels should remain between 80 mg/dL and 160 mg/dL. While many diabetics have a higher range that what has been mentioned here, it is not impossible for a person with diabetes type 2 to attain to this healthy blood sugar level. However, those who have diabetes will want to consult a doctor, as one’s ideal blood sugar level range does vary from person to person.

An Introduction to Hemoglobin A1C Tests

Hemoglobin A1C tests can help to determine just how low is low blood sugar. These tests can be found in many doctor offices, but there are also home kits that can be used by a diabetic without professional medical help. The hemoglobin A1C home test should be used before mealtimes, after mealtimes and before going to bed. It will help one get a good idea of what his or her average blood sugar level is at various times of the day.

Ideally, a diabetic should strive for a blood sugar level of 80 mg/dL to 160 mg/dL. However, this goal may not be realistic for everyone, which is why consulting a doctor and using a Hemoglobin A1C home test kit is important. Knowing about blood sugar ranges, especially the low range will help keep you in good health.

Just What Is Average Blood Sugar Level?

Just what is average blood sugar level? The answer to this question depends on various factors.

A person’s age and whether or not he or she has diabetes are two important determining factors.
The type of diabetes that one has and even the time of day that the testing is done are two more important factors to consider.

Generally speaking, your average blood sugar level should range from 4.0 mmol/L to 7.8 mmol.L. However, a person with type one diabetes will have an average blood sugar range 4 mmol/L up to 9 mmol/L; those with type two diabetes should have a normal blood sugar range of 4 mmol/L up to 8.5 mmol/L. Diabetic children will have a range of 4 mmol/L up to 10 mmol/L.

How Can This be Attained?

While the question of what is average blood sugar level is quite easy to answer, knowing how to attain this desired level is not quite as easy. To start with, a person should get medical advice. Blood sugar levels that are either too high or too low can be an indication of not only diabetes but also liver cancer. A doctor determine the root cause of the problem and also give you good advice that can help you attain a desirable blood sugar level.

Diabetics need to watch their diet, and eating enough food after taking insulin is a must. A doctor will also provide a diabetic with a list of foods and drinks that should be avoided. Keeping to a regular schedule is also important, as hypoglycemia can set in a diabetic exercises too much, or exercises at a different time than he or she is used to.

Testing and Reading Results

The answer to the question “what is average blood sugar level?”

This can also be determined by taking a hemoglobin A1C test. This type of test can and should be administered by a medical professional. A doctor will consider the results and will also take into account what a person has been eating or drinking right before taking the test. All foods will cause at least a small increase to blood sugar levels; however, some foods and drinks that are known to cause blood sugar levels to rise dramatically are potatoes, white rice, raisins and soft drinks.

There are also home test kits that can be used by diabetics to determine their blood sugar level at any given time. These home kits do not take the place of doctor tests, but they can help a diabetic keep tabs on his or her blood sugar level throughout the day.

Keeping a steady blood sugar level is very important. There can be serious consequences if one’s blood sugar levels dip too high or too low on a regular basis. This is why knowing what your blood sugar level is at and what is considered the normal range for yourself is so vitally important!

How to Create Sugar Free Desserts for Diabetics

Sugar free desserts for diabetics may seem like a myth, and at the same time godsend for diabetics.

Unfortunately, many diabetics believe that a healthy diabetes diet plan simply cannot include having great dessert. This is not the case, with desserts that both taste great and are sugar free.

Using Fruits to Create Sugar Free Desserts for Diabetics

Fruits are great ingredients for making low carbohydrate desserts which are delicious and nutritious. The sweetness in the dessert comes from the fruit, but there is an added benefit; the fruits aid your digestion since they are also rich in fiber. This fiber also helps to stabilize your blood sugar levels.

Some of the more favorable fruits to be used for dessert include:

Raspberries
Strawberries
Blueberries

Sample Menu of Sugar Free Desserts for Diabetics

A great option for dessert is having pudding. If you love having pudding, you may want to try making bread pudding with orange or chocolate.

The ingredients are:

Two cups of whole wheat bread, cut into bite size pieces
Half a cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
One and a half cup of egg substitute
One cup of low fat milk
One fourth of a cup of sugar substitute
One table spoon of cinnamon and a table spoon of orange zest

Simply prepare and spray eight custard dishes with nonstick cooking spray. Mix the ingredients together and then distribute the mixture evenly into the custard cups and then put them into an oven that has been preheated to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

The total cooking time for this sugar free pudding is forty five minutes.
After the pudding has cooked, let it cool for a little bit before serving this excellent example of a great sugar free dessert for diabetics.

Keeping track of Ingredients for Sugar Free Desserts through the Glycemic Index

If you want to maintain a good diabetic meal plan, remember to check the glycemic index (GI) of the ingredients used to create your dessert. The glycemic index shows how certain carbohydrates are digested in the body and form glucose. If carbohydrates in a certain ingredient has a low GI (55 or less), they will be digested slower than those with higher GI and are better for people with diabetes. To give you an idea of what we are talking about so you have a better idea of what you can use in your desserts, some example of the best low GI foods are:

Bran cereals,
Oatmeal
Barley

Tips for Managing an 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

One of the ways that you can help fight your diabetes is by sticking to an 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan. This number may sound scary or restrictive at first, but know that this Calorie count is higher than an active 30 year old male in good shape needs to maintain his body.

The main idea behind the 1800 calorie diabetic diet plan is that you need to get 1800 calories each day, which should be manageable by most Americans.

The reason why this ‘should’ be manageable is that 1800 is near to the standard diet plan for healthy living.

How the 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan Can Help You

This diabetic diet plan helps you to maintain normal blood sugar levels, and is designed so that you can lose some weight as well which is always a good thing! While on this diet it is also important that you try to keep active so that you can burn up any excess calories. Indoor and outdoor activities are highly encouraged, so lace up those shoes and get out for a bike ride, jog, walk, or other physical activity.

When you are following this plan it’s very important to avoid carbohydrate foods that have a high Glycemic Index (GI).

These bad foods include:

Donuts
Sweet syrup
White rice
Bagels

Instead, replace those bad foods with fruit and vegetables. It sounds bad at first, but once you rediscover how sweet and tasty an apple is, or how refreshing a raw, sweet pepper can be, it won’t take you too long to curb most of your sweet carb cravings.

Sample 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan

The first thing that you’ll likely ask yourself once you start to consider the 1800 Calorie Diet Plan is if you’ll actually have the will-power to stick with it. It sounds great on paper, but reality is where we need to live, and it’s here that we also face the toughest challenges.

Three big keys here that I’ve found have worked wonders for myself:

Learn the simple rules that you need to follow to live within the Calorie budget of the diet eg: how much protein, vegetables, etc make up each meal. Once you know this you can start to improvise easily.
Learn how to cook food that you like to eat. If you don’t enjoy eating it, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll stick with this diet for any length of time.
Learn how you can cook in batches to save time. This was a big one for myself, because I look at time in the kitchen as ‘wasted time.’ To get over this lie that I tell myself (because time in the kitchen is never really wasted) what I did was cooked larger portions of food, so that I would have several meals that I could put into the fridge, reheat, and eat them quickly.This was also important because on those days when I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to cook, the meals were already prepared in the fridge waiting for me!

Here’s a sample plan that you can follow:

Breakfast:
A good diabetic breakfast idea is to have a large banana with a cup of skim milk, along with one and a half cup of bran cereal and a tablespoon of cream cheese.

Lunch:
For lunch, simply have an ounce of low fat Colby cheese, ½ cup of mild salsa, 2 ounces of baked nacho chips, 2 ounces of ground turkey, along with 2 cups of chopped lettuce.

Dinner:
Dinner may consist of two thirds of a cup of brown rice with salmon, a teaspoon of olive oil, ½ cup of cooked carrots, 1 cup of skim milk and three quarters of a cup of pineapple for dessert.

So don’t be afraid to get creative when designing your 1800 Calorie Diabetic Diet Plan so that you can enjoy keeping your body healthy and fit and your blood sugar levels down!

Are Diabetic Food Choices Limited?

Diabetic Food Choices

Have you ever thought that being a diabetic means that yout don’t get to eat good food?

Of course, that’s just self-pity talking, because the truth about diabetic food choices is that we can eat pretty much the same as anyone else – we just need to keep everything in check and make sure that we are exercising and using moderation when it comes to food.

Good food for diabetes comes in a wide variety such as cookies, crackers, snacks, fudge and many other foods as well.

Foods to Help Control Diabetes

Eating high fiber foods is highly recommended to manage diabetes. Good sources of soluble fiber such as oats, soy beans, peas, wheat and other whole grains have the added benefit of lowering LDL, or bad, cholesterol levels.

Some foods that are high in fiber can also do double duty as a good source of protein. Legumes like beans, peas and sprouts can be both a great source of fiber and protein. You can also snack on nuts such as peanuts, sunflower kernels, almonds and pistachios for good sources of healthy protein. Try to stick to the unsalted versions of these nuts however, so that you don’t ingest the extra sodium.

Where Does Diary Fit into the Diabetic Meal Options?

Low-fat or skim milk and cheese are also healthy ways to obtain protein and calcium. Non-starchy vegetables like celery, lettuce and spinach should make up 80 percent your daily servings of produce. Eating fruits and vegetables that vary in color daily will also provide different vitamin and mineral benefits.

All of these are food choices for diabetics because they are low in both carbohydrates and sugar. We all know that we need to manage our intake of these two key items, but the often overlooked side effect, is that by doing this we’re also promoting a very healthy lifestyle that will leave us feeling and looking great as we drop weight.

The Diabetic food choices that you have are many, and food is always going to be one of the most important factors in your diabetes management, but at the end of the day you need to remind yourself that you are in control of your life and you get to make the decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions (both good and bad) so enjoy it! Life is great.