Normal Blood Glucose Levels

Can a diabetic have normal blood glucose levels? In a word, YES! Read on to learn more…

Diabetes is a disease where the body does not respond properly to or produce insulin. This results in the abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and leads to elevated levels of sugar in the blood.

But you just told me that diabetics can have normal blood glucose levels. How it that possible?

But before one can assert that normal sugar levels are possible for a diabetic, one must discern what level can be considered as normal.

Normal Blood Glucose Levels

The following blood glucose levels are common in people without diabetes.

• Fasting blood sugar levels are between 70 and 100 mg/dL (3.9 to 5.6 mmol/L )

• The optimal non-fasting glucose level before a meal is less than 100 mg/dL (5.5 mmol/L )

• When operating normally, the body restores blood sugar levels to beetween 82 and 110 mg/dL (4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L) within two hours after eating

• Shortly after a meal the blood glucose level may rise temporarily up to 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L)

How Can a Diabetic Achieve Normal Blood Sugar Levels?

As a diabetic, it is possible for you to maintain normal blood glucose levels. However, maintaining normal blood glucose levels will mean some adjustments to your diet and lifestyle.

The majority of diabetics try maintain normal blood glucose levels by injecting insulin after they eat to bring their blood sugar levels back down to normal. The problem is that even with insulin injection, the diet that resulted in someone becoming a Type 2 Diabetic is usually high in carbohydrates and causes big swings in blood glucose levels. Type 1 diabetics also tend to have large blood sugar swings after eating due to eating the Standard American Diet.

Here is a chart that shows normal versus diabetic blood sugar levels and how food causes a rise in blood sugar.

So while you can inject insulin before you eat and get pretty good at predicting how much your blood sugar will go up so you know how much insulin to inject, there are too many variables to be able to be as precise at maintaining your blood sugar levels as your body would if it were managing your blood sugar naturally.

Achieving Normal Blood Glucose Levels with a Ketogenic or Low Carb Diet

The reason that Ketogenic and Low Carb diets are so effective in helping diabetics maintain normal blood glucose levels is they solve the problem at the other root cause ...not your body’s ability to handle sugar, but by limiting the amount of glucose your body has to deal with in the first place).

By altering their diet, the majority of type 2 diabetics can maintain normal blood sugar levels without the use of insulin or any medication. The symptoms and health of most type 1 diabetics improves drastically as well.

Eating Food That We Are Genetically Optimized For

You must realize that the current high carb, low fat American diet was promoted to the American population without any evidence that it was healthy. Today Americans consume more refined grains and sugar than ever before in history.

Since we actually ate a ketogenic diet for millions of years before agriculture started around 7000 years ago and a typical Englishman in the 1800’s ate only 4 pounds of sugar a year to our 150+ pounds of sugar per year consumption, many experts feel that diabetes is on the rise simply because we are not genetically optimized for eating so many carbohydrates.

Eliminating fats compounds the problem because fats slow down the digestion of carbohydrates. Without healthy fats, the carbohydrates in a meal area absorbed very quickly, faster than even a healthy person can mount a proper insulin response. This causes big swings in the blood glucose levels.

You have likely experienced this. Think about the last time you had a breakfast made up of cereal and orange juice. Likely you felt energized right after you ate it, but an hour later you were tired and hungry again.

A low carb or ketogenic diet keeps your blood sugar from rising so much after you eat. Even without the presence of insulin. This is because your body runs differently on ketones than it does on glucose. Your body can run on both, however, running on ketones means you have transitioned your body to be fat-burning instead of sugar burning. Since we naturally store more fat on our bodies than we can store sugar, having a fat burning metabolism means we have a long, strong, dependable source of energy. It means less food cravings as well.

Learn more about a Ketogenic Diet

Learn more about a Low Carb Diet