How to Lower Your Blood Sugar

Step 1: Eat whatever you've been eating and write it all down

Eat normally, but use your blood sugar meter to test yourself at the following times. Write down what you ate and what your blood sugar results were:

Upon waking (fasting)

1 hour after each meal

2 hours after each meal

What you will discover by this is how long after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to "normal." Also, you may learn that a meal that included bread, fruit or other starches and sugars (carbohydrates) gives you a higher reading.

Step 2: For the next few days cut back on your carbohydrates

Eliminate breads, cereals, rice, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, and fruit. Get all of your carbohydrates from veggies. Test your modified meals using the same schedule above. See what impact you can make on your blood sugar by eliminating various high carbohydrate foods.

The closer we get to non-diabetic readings, the greater chance we have of avoiding horrible complications.

Here are what doctors currently believe to be non-diabetic readings:

Fasting blood sugar	under 100 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/L)
One hour after meals	under 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L)
Two hours after meals	under 120 mg/dl (6.6 mmol/L)

If you can do better than this, go for it. At a minimum, The American College of Clinical Endocrinologists recommends that people with diabetes keep their blood sugars under 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L) two hours after eating.

When you achieve normal blood sugar targets, you can start cautiously adding back carbohydrates, making sure to test after each meal. Stop adding carbohydrates as soon as you get near your blood sugar targets.

Recent studies have indicated that your "after meal" numbers are those most indicative of future complications, especially heart problems.

Step 3: Test Test Test!

Remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but ourselves. Play around with your food plan. Test, test, test! Learn what foods cause blood sugar spikes and what foods cause cravings. Learn which foods give you healthy blood sugars.

No matter what anyone tells you, if a food raises your blood sugar over the targets you are aiming for, that food should not be part of your diabetes food plan. Your blood sugar meter will tell you what the best "diabetes diet" is for your body. Use it and regain your health!