You may be able to help keep your blood sugar stable by making changes to your diet, including reducing sugar and refined carbs, drinking enough water, and getting regular exercise.
Blood sugar spikes occur when your blood sugar rises and then falls sharply after you eat.
In the short term, they can cause lethargy and hunger. Over time, your body may not be able to lower blood sugar effectively, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes is a rising health problem. In fact, 29 million Americans have diabetes, and 25% of them don’t even know they have it (1Trusted Source).
Blood sugar spikes can also cause your blood vessels to harden and narrow, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
This article looks at 12 simple things you can do to prevent blood sugar spikes.
1. Go low-carb
Carbohydrates (carbs) are what cause blood sugar to rise.
When you eat carbs, they are broken down into simple sugars. Those sugars then enter the bloodstream.
As your blood sugar levels rise, your pancreas releases a hormone called insulin, which prompts your cells to absorb sugar from the blood. This causes your blood sugar levels to drop.
Many studies have shown that consuming a low-carb diet can help prevent blood sugar spikes (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
Low-carb diets also have the added benefit of aiding weight loss, which can also reduce blood sugar spikes (6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9).
There are lots of ways to reduce your carb intake, including counting carbs. Here’s a guide on how to do it.
2. Eat fewer refined carbs
Refined carbs, otherwise known as processed carbs, are sugars or refined grains.
Some common sources of refined carbs are table sugar, white bread, white rice, soda, candy, breakfast cereals and desserts.
Refined carbs have been stripped of almost all nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Refined carbs are said to have a high glycemic index because they are very easily and quickly digested by the body. This leads to blood sugar spikes.
A large observational study of more than 91,000 women found that a diet high in high-glycemic-index carbs was associated with an increase in type 2 diabetes (10Trusted Source).
The spike in blood sugar and subsequent drop you may experience after eating high-glycemic-index foods can also promote hunger and can lead to overeating and weight gain (11Trusted Source).
The glycemic index of carbs varies. It’s affected by a number of things, including ripeness, what else you eat and how the carbs are cooked or prepared.
Generally, whole-grain foods have a lower glycemic index, as do most fruits, non-starchy vegetables and legumes.
3. Reduce your sugar intake
The average American consumes 22 teaspoons (88 grams) of added sugar per day. That translates to around 350 calories (12).
While some of this is added as table sugar, most of it comes from processed and prepared foods, such as candy, cookies and sodas.
You have no nutritional need for added sugar like sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup. They are, in effect, just empty calories.
Your body breaks these simple sugars down very easily, causing an almost immediate spike in blood sugar.
Studies show that consuming sugars is associated with developing insulin resistance.
This is when the cells fail to respond as they should to the release of insulin, resulting in the body not being able to control blood sugar effectively (13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source).
In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed the way foods have to be labeled in the US. Foods now have to display the amount of added sugars they contain in grams and as a percentage of the recommended daily maximum intake.
An alternative option to giving up sugar entirely is to replace it with sugar substitutes.
4. Keep a healthy weight
At present, two out of three adults in the US are considered to be overweight or obese (15Trusted Source).
Being overweight or obese can make it more difficult for your body to use insulin and control blood sugar levels.
This can lead to blood sugar spikes and a corresponding higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The precise ways it works are still unclear, but there’s lots of evidence linking obesity to insulin resistance and the development of type 2 diabetes (16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source).
Weight loss, on the other hand, has been shown to improve blood sugar control.
In one study, 35 obese people lost an average of 14.5 pounds (6.6 kg) over 12 weeks while they were on a diet of 1,600 calories a day. Their blood sugar dropped by an average of 14% (19Trusted Source).
In another study of people without diabetes, weight loss was found to decrease the incidence of developing type 2 diabetes by 58% (20Trusted Source).