EP.255/ How To Eat Your Carbs without The Blood Sugar Spike for Lower Inflammation Levels and Balanced Hormones
Today I want to talk about a really easy strategy for improving your blood sugar response when eating some of your favourite carbs.
Now, as some of you may know, I’m currently doing shorter episodes, so I won’t be diving into blood sugar here – but I do have many, many articles and episodes on the science of blood sugar and how it affects endo, so I’ll link to a few in the show notes.
But, let’s do a very quick recap so that for those who aren’t familiar, can easily follow along.
So, blood sugar is the measure of glucose in your blood stream. Glucose is the molecule that comes from carbohydrates when we break them down in the small intestine after eating, and it is our body’s primary source of fuel, so it’s needed for energy. Glucose comes from simple carbs and complex carbs.
Complex carbs are whole foods that contain fibre, like vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains. These take longer to breakdown in the gut, and so the release of glucose to the blood stream is slow and controlled, leaving us with energy for hours ahead after eating.
In contrast, simple carbs are refined carbs that have had their fibre removed and are mainly just high amounts of starch, like bread, pasta, crisps, pizza, flours, sugar, etc. These release a big amount of glucose to the blood stream quickly, and this results in what is known as a blood sugar spike or a glucose spike.
This triggers off a cascade of reactions in the body which cause excess inflammation and damage to the body, and eventually, with repeated exposure, can cause hormonal imbalances like oestrogen dominance or excess, high testosterone levels and low progesterone, to name a few. It can also worsen pain levels due to the rising inflammation.
Now, you heard me say that whole grains and essentially, whole foods, are a form of complex carbs, whilst this is true, there are some complex carbs that can still break down relatively quickly or have high levels of starch (which is essentially a form of glucose) and cause spikes. Put simply, the more starch a food contains, the more likely you’ll spike from it. Those foods include potatoes, whether sweet or white, certain fruits like bananas and wholegrains like oats and rice.
Now, some people may eat these without any problems whatsoever, especially if they live a very active lifestyle and require lots of energy, but for others, this amount of starch can really affect their blood sugar. This is especially true for those of us who are already struggling with blood sugar instability and are trying to work to get it more stable.
So, what can you do about it? The common answer is to go low carb, but that’s not sustainable in the long run and can make you feel very deprived and can also leave you without much energy.
So, here’s another alternative. Alongside some of the blood sugar balancing strategies I recommend in other episodes and in my courses, workshops and coaching, you can also try cooking and cooling some of these foods.
Cooking and cooling potatoes, rice and oats changes their chemical structure and increases their amount of resistance starch. Resistant starch is a type of starch that is not absorbed into the blood stream, and instead, makes its way to the large intestine and feeds our good gut bugs. This means that you get less of a blood sugar spike from the starch content, whilst also supporting your gut health and getting to keep your carbs!
Some ways of bringing these foods into your meals is to cook a batch of baked potatoes and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for lunch, paired with salad and a protein. You could also make a potato salad that you serve with lunch or dinner, or you could make a rice salad with cooked and cooled rice.
In terms of oats, I’m not a fan of cooked and cooled oats personally, and actually, they make me bloat a lot, but uncooked oats actually have a good amount of resistance starch anyway, so making your own muesli or having uncooked oats with say yoghurt and berries, is another way to get in your oats without such a spike.
If you don’t like the idea of eating these carbs cold, you can reheat them and they will still contain more resistant starch than had you just cooked them and ate them hot, without cooling them. Some of the resistant starch may be reduced, but you’ll still experience a benefit! Just be super careful with reheating rice, because it can cause food poisoning if done incorrectly, so I’ve linked to an NHS guide on how to safely cook, cool as well as reheat rice. Please read this before trying this, as food poisoning from rice can be serious.
One thing to note, is that for those of us with SIBO, resistant starch can sometimes cause more symptoms, because the bacteria get to have a good munch on it, as it’s not being absorbed into the blood stream. If you do find that this happens to you, try experimenting with serving sizes – you may find that smaller serving sizes work better for you until you clear your SIBO, don’t just assume you can’t eat these foods at all. The other thing may be that it’s about how many servings you have in a day, so perhaps you can tolerate a serving of uncooked oats, but having uncooked oats and cooked and cooled potatoes in one day really triggers symptoms. It will really vary for everyone.
If you don’t have SIBO, but do notice some gas or bloating – don’t worry, this is normal when we increase any type of fibre, and resistant starch is a type of fibre. When bacteria eat fibre, they release gas, so we will have a bit more gas and bloating. This should subside a bit as time goes on and the gut adjusts to the new level of fibre intake, but with any fibre increase, start slowly and steadily, rather than making big changes over night.
So, how can you tell if this change is helping you? Observe how you feel after meals with cooked rice, cooked potatoes and cooked oats. If you feel sluggish, sleepy, brain fogged or experience hunger or dizziness shortly after eating (say an hour or two), you’ve likely spiked and crashed. If you find you’re more energised after cooking and cooling these foods and then eating them (or eating oats uncooked) and you have less of these symptoms and/or they lessen with time, it’s working well for you. But give it a good few months, blood sugar doesn’t change overnight and the real benefits and stabilisation of your glucose levels will come with repeated blood sugar balancing.
In the long run, balancing blood sugar is an absolute cornerstone of managing endo and getting pain levels down, and beating that endo fatigue, brain fog and heavy periods.
So, let me know if you try this method and if you find your energy, hormones or pain improves with time!
Show Notes
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/this-endolife/id1243158865?i=1000604296655
https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/
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