Did you know that half of the people walking around today have a serious blood sugar problem? BUT so many of them don’t even know it, yet. We are now up to 50 percent of adults living in the United States walking around today have diabetes or are pre-diabetic. Take that 50 percent and add even more to the count when you take into all of the people suffering from other forms of insulin-resistance-driven blood sugar problems like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). What is worse, is that if nothing is done those that are classified as pre-diabetic will end up with full-blown type 2 diabetes if they don’t make important changes to their lifestyle and diet now.
You probably already know how your diet affects your blood sugar levels in your body. When you eat sugar, artificial sugar, fruits, your blood sugar spikes. This isn’t necessarily terrible, what is bad is when your diet is majorly made up of sugar which means your blood sugar is always elevated and your body never gets a break from the spike. Interestingly enough many of these foods that spike your blood sugar also wreak havoc on your gut.
“All disease begins in the gut.” Hippocrates
Research lately is focusing on how healing the gut also helps to rebalance the sugar levels within the body. Studies that focus on blood sugar or the gut, show the direct correlation your gut health has on blood sugar. For example, those who are overweight or struggle with weight loss resistance tend to have lower microbiome diversity with lower amounts of beneficial bacteria and higher amounts of harmful ones. While more research like this needs to be done to learn more about exactly how the microbiome influences blood sugar, we can’t deny that it plays a significant role.
More importantly, what should be done about finding this direct correlation. Well, first and foremost diets need to change. One, in particular, that has shown time and time again to work really well at reducing inflammation, lowering insulin levels, and improving insulin receptor site sensitivity is the ketogenic diet aka Keto. Keto focuses on high-fat, moderate protein, and low-carbs. In fact, this diet is so powerful at controlling blood sugar that it can even reverse symptoms of Type 2 diabetes in just 10 weeks! Now that is amazing! It has shown that this type of diet has the ability to change the microbiome in beneficial ways. Eliminate the sugar to eliminate the overgrowth of bad bacteria.
Need a quick checklist on dos and don’t for gut health? Check out our easy to follow list here.
