Now, as you know, blood sugar levels fluctuate throughout the day, which can make it challenging to follow a regular meal plan. When you have diabetes, it can be especially difficult to predict how your blood sugar will respond to different foods. If you’ve ever found yourself unexpectedly eating more than you planned because your blood sugar was already too high from a previous meal, you know how difficult that can be to avoid doing again. The same thing happens when you’re trying to follow a regular meal plan. You usually end up eating more than you planned based on how your blood sugar turned out. It’s called hypoglycemic unawareness, and it’s a dangerous condition. Here’s what you need to know about how fast blood sugar drop after eating.
how fast does blood sugar drop after eating
when you eat a carb-rich meal, such as pasta, bread, or potatoes, your blood sugar will drop quickly. However, if you eat protein or fat with a carb-rich meal, your blood sugar will drop more slowly.
What Is Hypoglycemic Unawareness?
- The most common cause of hypoglycemic unawareness is a diet that’s too high in simple carbohydrates, especially refined grains and sugar.
- When you eat simple carbohydrates, your blood sugar rises quickly.
- The rise in blood sugar creates an insulin surge that causes your body to release glucose into your bloodstream.
- This glucose creates a temporary increase in the level of glucose in your bloodstream (glucose).
- Normally, when you eat a meal, the level of glucose in your bloodstream will drop to its normal level within 30 minutes (glucose). However, if you can’t tell how much food is left (hypoglycemic unawareness), or if you choose to eat more than planned because of the high levels of glucose, then it can take up to 2 hours for the level of glucose in your bloodstream to drop back down to normal following a meal with simple carbohydrates.
- If this happens too often and you don’t take action to avoid it, you can develop a condition called hypoglycemic unawareness.
- This condition is when you have a low blood sugar level, but you don’t know it.
What Causes Hypoglycemia Unawareness?
1. Snacking
If you’re trying to follow a meal plan, the last thing you want to do is eat too much. But when you’re hypoglycemic unaware, it can be hard to tell if your blood sugar is already high from a previous meal. It’s easy to have a snack before starting your meal plan since you don’t know how your blood sugar is going to respond to the food. You may end up eating more than you planned and end up with an even higher blood sugar level than what you started with.
2. High Blood Sugar
If you have diabetes, it can be challenging for your body to regulate the amount of insulin it releases during a meal. That can cause blood sugar levels to rise too high for your body’s needs and too fast for its own good. When this happens, again and again, it can lead to hypoglycemic unawareness because your body doesn’t know how much insulin it needs at any given time and it doesn’t know when to release the insulin it does need.
3. Eating too fast
One of the most common mistakes made by people with diabetes is eating too fast. When you eat quickly, your blood sugar level drops too quickly, and your body can’t absorb the nutrients from the food you ate in time. You may end up eating more than you planned because you didn’t have enough time to process all of the food in your stomach before your blood sugar level dropped too low again.
Diets And Hypoglycemic Unawareness
- Diets that are low in carbohydrates, such as the Atkins diet, can cause significant hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
- Diets that are high in fat, such as the ketogenic diet, can cause hypoglycemia because of the increased production of ketones.
- A diet that is high in protein or calories without enough carbohydrates can cause hypoglycemia from excess production of ketones.
- Diets low in fat and high in protein without enough carbohydrates can cause hypoglycemia from excessive production of ketones.
- A diet that is high in fat and low in carbohydrates can cause hypoglycemia from excess production of ketones.
- Low-carbohydrate diets can cause hypoglycemia from excessive production of ketones.
- A diet that is high in protein and low in fat can cause hypoglycemia due to increased insulin production that leads to increased glucagon secretion, which causes the body to make more glucose (sugar) from fats and protein breakdown products.
How To Avoid Hypoglycemic Unawareness
- Eat small meals, spaced 2-3 hours apart
- Avoid eating within 2-3 hours of bedtime
- Eat your largest meal at dinner
- Avoid eating for 3 hours after an evening meal
- Avoid high carbohydrate meals (bread, cereals, pasta) before bed
- Eat a protein-rich snack before you go to sleep (nuts, seeds, cheese)
The Lowdown On When Does Blood Sugar Drop After Eating
Blood Sugar Drops Fastest During The First Hour
After eating a meal, your blood sugar level will drop fastest during the first hour after it has been consumed. In fact, if you eat a meal within an hour of waking up or before going to bed, it can take longer for your blood sugar to return to normal than if you wait until later in the day.
Blood Sugar Drops Fastest After Eating Carbohydrates
After eating carbohydrates, which make up the bulk of the food you eat, your blood sugar will drop the fastest. This is because your body digests and absorbs carbohydrates into your bloodstream more quickly than other foods.
Blood Sugar Drops Faster When You Eat Smaller Portions
The smaller your meal portions are, the faster they will be digested and absorbed by your body, which means they will have a greater impact on your blood sugar levels. Therefore, if you want to eat less and have a lower impact on your blood sugar levels, eat smaller portions.
Blood Sugar Drops Faster After Eating Carbohydrates
After eating carbohydrates, which make up the bulk of the food you eat, your blood sugar will drop the fastest. This is because your body digests and absorbs carbohydrates into your bloodstream more quickly than other foods. Therefore, if you want to eat less and have a lower impact on your blood sugar levels, eat smaller portions.
Blood Sugar Drops Faster When You Eat Smaller Portions
The smaller your meal portions are, the faster they will be digested and absorbed by your body, which means they will have a greater impact on your blood sugar levels. Therefore, if you want to eat less and have a lower impact on your blood sugar levels, eat smaller portions.
Conclusion
There is a lot of information out there on how to avoid hypoglycemic unawareness, but what we want to focus on today is how to accurately and quickly drop blood sugar levels after eating. In this article, we will be discussing how to accurately and quickly drop blood sugar levels after eating and what causes this phenomenon in the first place.