What to eat.

The simplest way to avoid blood sugar spikes, is to reduce processed food, and replace it with nutritious real food.

Real food

Eating real food means nourishing your body with natural foods, rather than food made in factories. There are many names for this kind of lifestyle change, including whole food, paleo and ancestral eating.

Avoiding processed foods reduces refined carbohydrates and sugar, so by default this way of eating is usually “low-carb”. The amount of real food carbs someone chooses to eat, usually depends on individual health goals. Keto, LCHF and Atkins are all variations of low-carb.

The best thing about eating real food, is that there’s no need to count calories, simply eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full.

Why?

As we’ve learnt, regular spikes in blood sugar through the day can negatively impact our mood and energy levels. Over time, it leads to prolonged high insulin, which results in weight gain and chronic disease.

Choosing to avoid foods which spike blood sugar allows insulin levels to fall. Whether your goal is to lose weight, increase energy, prevent disease or reverse a medical condition, changing the way you eat is a powerful tool to help you achieve it.

Who?

Eating real food is safe and healthy for everyone. It’s the food human bodies have evolved to eat!

It’s important to work with your doctor if you have medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, or you are pregnant or breastfeeding, as you may require monitoring or adjustments during the initial transition.

What?

So, what foods should you focus on eating? Foods can be grouped into different lists, depending on how much they impact blood sugar.

Green foods are real foods which have very little, or no, impact, on blood sugar. These can be eaten freely until you feel satisfied.

Red foods are mostly processed, factory-made foods, which cause large blood sugar spikes or inflammation. Choosing to avoid these, or only consume them occasionally, is the most important step to lowering insulin.

Orange foods may increase blood sugar, particularly if consumed in large portion sizes. For some people, they increase cravings for sugar and carbs, or may be easy to overeat. Choosing to limit these foods, can help you achieve your health goals faster.

Cook food in natural fats (olive/coconut oil or butter) and avoid vegetable oils (e.g. canola and sunflower oil).

For a comprehensive list of low-carb real food, I recommend the diet doctor website.

Getting started.

If you’re ready to make changes to the way you eat, these tips can help to set you up for success.

1. Discuss with your family the changes you’d like to make, including the person who usually does the food shopping or cooking - it helps to have the support of others in the house, or even better, they may choose to make the changes with you.

2. Clean out your fridge/freezer and pantry, removing red list foods and restocking with green and orange foods. It can be very difficult to resist red foods if they’re in the house.

3. Cook large portions, so you can use leftovers for lunch the next day or freeze for future dinners.

4. Plan some no-cook dinners, e.g. sliced cheese and meats with veggies with a homemade creamy dip.

Meal planning.

Plan your meals with the green foods list and these 4 simple steps. Depending on your personal health goals, you may choose to include some orange foods.

You may find also some of the following resources from diet doctor useful:

Shopping list
Sample menu
Meal planning
5 day food diary
Sample meals/planned left overs
Substitutes for favourite foods

Swaps.

Another easy way to think of eating real food, is to replace the white stuff on your plate (sugar, pasta, bread and rice) for green stuff (veggies).

Pasta can be swapped for zucchini noodles, rice for cauliflower rice, and bread for lettuce leaves. Alternatively, you can just have more of the meaty part of the meal (e.g. for spaghetti bolognese - skip the spaghetti and have extra bolognese).

There are also great recipes available to make real-food versions of food like pizza, chips, crackers and bread.

Meal ideas.

For more ideas, the diet doctor website has over 1000 low-carb, real food recipes.

Plant based?

This way of eating is focused on nutritious whole foods. Animal foods are nutrient dense, and contain all essential vitamins and minerals.

If you are vegetarian or vegan, this means eating a whole food plant-based diet, and avoiding factory made meat-free products. It’s not possible to obtain enough of some vitamins and minerals from a plant based diet, so these must be supplemented.

Myths.

Have you been told that eggs contain too much cholesterol? That saturated fat clogs arteries? That eating red meat can cause cancer?

Unfortunately, this nutritional advice is either simply untrue, or based in bad science. Click below to learn more about common food myths:

• Does saturated fat clog arteries?

• Does red meat cause cancer?

• Are eggs unhealthy?

• Are wholegrains healthy?