Blood Sugar Regulation: Taking the Reins
Foundation: Blood sugar regulation – balance & flexibility
This past Christmas, I was reminded of something.
I was standing in the checkout lineup of a department store (which was long, of course, because it was the thick of Christmas mayhem, so I had extra time to ponder the world and life).
I observed that literally every step I took closer to my destination of checking out, my pathway was lined with sugar. You know what it is like...Pot of Gold, Toberlone, Lindors, candy canes – all the sweet treats to fill your Christmas needs, and then some.
In some ways, it’s almost a dream come true – why wouldn’t we want to live in a world lined with sugar and chocolate, and that all you have to do is reach out and claim it? Except for the small detail that there are health consequences in consuming too much poor quality sweets.
Oh, yeah, that.
After that observation, I thought about the world that our ancestors lived it, millions of years ago. The one where it was just human beings existing in a tribe, supporting one another, and reaching out to the natural elements of their environment as a source of nourishment and protection.
That’s an existence few of us know – and really only can gain insight into if we watch a few episodes or seasons of Alone (no tribe present in this example, of course). (1)
Nonetheless, I was reminded of how far from this original simplicity our modern world has come.
In this primitive world, refined sugar as we know it today did not even exist. Sweets, instead generally came in the form of natural sugars like fruit, honey, and tree syrups, and were available for a limited time, in accordance with the seasons.
Sugar cane, a perennial grass, originated in the tropical region of New Guinea, where it was used primarily for medicinal purposes to alleviate digestive distress and joint pain. (2)
Refined sugar didn’t actually come into existence until the 1600s, and was something that was only consumed by the wealthier class. As production evolved (shifting to primarily sugar beets as its source) it made its way out into the broader population, but even then, the average consumption was just a few pounds per person per year. (3)
Since then, our consumption has steadily increased to nearly a hundred pounds (or more) per person per year in some parts of the world. In Canada, however, according to the Canadian Sugar Institute, it looks like we are somewhere between 38-64 pounds per year. (3, 4)
This excessive sugar intake is not without consequences when it comes to our health and is understood to be linked to and create risk factors towards obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. (5)
Needless to say, we live at a point in history that we’ve never had such a profound need to lower blood sugar and address its dysregulation.
In my post on What is macronutrient balancing? I shared the uncontrollable sweet tooth that I once lived with, and how I gained traction on it once implementing macronutrient balancing (balancing proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to meet bio-individual needs at each meal and snack).
This was a powerful method for me, but I won’t repeat myself as to what I’ve already said about it.
Instead I will make reference to, and will continue to broaden the exploration of this immense topic.
That said, let this not diminish the importance of macronutrient balancing in structuring your meals and snacks. This principle is foundational!
Riding a wild horse is often what it feels like when you just can’t get a grip on your sweet tooth or any other aspect of troublesome blood sugar.
In the exploration and tips to come, I hope to help you take the reins on that wild horse, so to speak, and offer you key principles to guide your understanding of blood sugar regulation, so that you feel like you are in a place of strength and control.
Foundational principles of blood sugar regulation
Simply put, blood sugar (or blood glucose, as it is sometimes referred) is a fuel source for our energy that comes from the food and beverages we take in.
With this in mind, our key Foundational Principles for blood sugar regulation are:
1. The health of our cells and our mitochondria specifically, is crucial to optimal energy production and the creation of important protein based structures (like hormones) which will help us regulate our blood sugar.
(We learned about cellular health and mitochondria during my post on Re-thinking the structure of our workday to support cellular health).
2. There are 5 organs that work as a team in order to keep our blood sugar levels within an optimal range for function:
- Pancreas
- Adrenals
- Adipose tissue
- Liver
- Skeletal muscles
3. Proper blood sugar regulation through macronutient balancing in our daily meals and snacks, while observing circadian rhythms, allows our bodies to have a balanced hormone release, and therefore become “metabolically flexible” over the longer term. This is ideal.
This means we can smoothly transition between fuel sources such as using proteins, carbohydrates, and fats whether in active or stored form for energy. Eating in a balanced way ensures we have this capability.
This metabolic flexibility is the result of millions of years of evolution where the availability of food sources in our environment varied based upon the seasons.
In summer, when there is greater availability of carbohydrate sources in fruits and vegetables, our bodies efficiently converted this high intake into growth, activity, and storage.
In winter, when there is little or even no availability of carbohydrate sources, and instead proteins and fats from animal sources remained in supply (or didn’t), our bodies either efficiently utilize these as energy sources, or even drew from our storage (that’s code for adipose tissue, or fat).
Still resting upon this ingrained wiring, we really must take it upon ourselves to ensure we maintain this metabolic flexibility, since adapting to the pressure of limited resources isn’t exactly an issue in our modern life.
Not only can we easily get an abundance of fruits and vegetables all year round (from anywhere in the world, I might add), but when we throw the sugar lined checkouts into the mix, for example, we are consuming more inordinate amounts of ill-timed glucose than our poor cells have ever seen.
So, yes, we’ve got some work on our hands. But, it can be done, when you are equipped with the right perspective and understanding of what optimal function looks like.
Signs of Optimal Function
Smooth transitions is the name of the game in blood sugar regulation - “smooth rolling hills” is what is often used to describe how your energy and hunger should feel.
Ideally, we should wake up feeling rested, hungry, and capable of digesting a solid portion of protein and fat, which will then sustain us until mid-day.
If you sleep soundly, feel a sustained energy, positive mood, and mental focus for 3-5 hours after meals and you’d be okay if for any reason a meal was delayed, then this is a sign that you are right where you need to be.
It is when we have “sharp pointed mountains and low valleys” in our energy and hunger levels, where we are experiencing pronounced highs from too much food or sugar/glucose consumption, and then subsequent lows from dysregulation, this is too much of a rough ride for our bodies and the mechanisms that support our blood sugar become tired, damaged, and less likely to function as they should.
Self-Assessment Questions
Here are a few reflection questions you can ask yourself to gauge the health of your blood sugar regulation:
- Do you ever wake up after being asleep for a few hours and then can’t get back to sleep?
- Do you feel shaky or get a headache if meals are delayed?
- Do you have excessive hunger or have difficulty controlling the amount you eat?
- Do you feel sleepy in the afternoons?
While our health is certainly complex, answering yes to many of these questions could show that there is some work to be done in supporting your blood sugar regulation.
Final thoughts
Having walked the path of horrible blood sugar dysregulation and through being able to pull myself back on track, I can attest that it is the most freeing feeling to not be pulled around by a craving or sharp energy lifts and crashes.
From a work perspective, having stabilized energy made an immense difference on my productivity, since I was able to maintain greater consistency in my output, no longer experiencing lost time while recovering from energy crashes.
I would also say that my sleep transformed, since I was no longer staring at the ceiling all night, unable to fall asleep from too much sugar late in the day. And, of course, when our sleep transforms, everything transforms. I felt notably much calmer internally, and the racing thoughts I experienced while on sugar highs were actually quite distracting.
There are so many positive outcomes that resulted, I probably could go on and on, but the take home message at the end of the day is this – you drive the ship when it comes to blood sugar regulation.
In my experience, it has little to do with willpower, but more so with honouring your bio-individual needs of macronutrients, circadian rhythms, and your environment.
"Balance is not something you find, it is something you create." - Jana Kingsford
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References & Further Reading
- Wikipedia (Apr 2025). Alone (TV series). Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(TV_series)
- Walfield, C. (2009).Sweet Tooth for Empire: Sugar and the British Atlantic World. Gettysburg Historical Journal (Volume 8, Article 5). Retrieved from: Sweet Tooth for Empire: Sugar and the British Atlantic World
- Sugar and Sweetener Guide (Jul 31, 2023). Historical Consumption of Sugar: A Concise Exploration of its Evolution. Retrieved from: Historical Consumption of Sugar: A Concise Exploration of its Evolution
- Canadian Sugar Institute. (2025). Canadian Sugar Industry Statistics. Retrieved from: https://sugar.ca/international-trade/canadian-sugar-market/canadian-sugar-industry-statistics
- Rippe JM, Angelopoulos TJ. Relationship between Added Sugars Consumption and Chronic Disease Risk Factors: Current Understanding. Nutrients. 2016 Nov 4;8(11):697. doi: 10.3390/nu8110697. PMID: 27827899; PMCID: PMC5133084.Retrieved from: Relationship between Added Sugars Consumption and Chronic Disease Risk Factors: Current Understanding - PMC
