Did your blood sugar balance after reducing your carb intake by 50%?
If it did, you can skip this module. But if your blood sugar is still out of range, carbohydrates are not the friend you thought they were. Those of you whose blood sugar remains imbalanced (even after a carbohydrate decrease) need to replace your carbohydrates with healthy fats.
Healthy fats are what is going to balance your blood sugar and increase your energy. But this isn’t as easy as adding bacon to all your meals. The goal here is still for you to have a well-balanced nutrition plan. This includes plenty of brightly colored vegetables.
But before you go rushing out to replace those foods with more carbohydrates, I want you to start thinking about fat. Ideally, those carbohydrate sources you don’t tolerate are going to be replaced with healthy fat sources. Fats are the ideal food substitute. Fats will give your brain an energy boost. And they’ll help to keep your blood sugar stable!
Why fat?
When you eat fat, your body breaks it down into fatty acids. Fatty acids have a minimal effect on your blood sugar. And the slight elevation in blood sugar they do cause is sustained over a long period of time. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, cause a dramatic increase in your blood sugar that is quickly followed by a dramatic decrease!
For example, eating a carbohydrate source like a banana will cause a sudden rise in blood sugar followed by a corresponding drop. All within a couple of hours. This is one reason why you feel hungry an hour or two after eating it.
When you eat a food product high in fat like coconut milk, a very different process occurs to your blood sugar. To start, the coconut milk will raise your blood sugar to a much lower degree than the banana. Plus, it will stabilize your blood sugar for a number of hours after eating it. This is why you don’t feel hungry for a number of hours after eating a high-fat meal.
Did you know: Your brain doesn’t have to run on sugar.
Your body comes complete with two different energy systems. Energy system one is the one you currently run on: sugars. One way to think of this system is like a gasoline engine. It’s what the majority of humans run on.
Energy system two runs on fat (or ketones). This is what the ketogenic diet is all about. Instead of your brain and body using sugar for fuel, it uses fat. Think of this system as a diesel engine. As you decrease your carbohydrate intake and increase your fat intake, you train your body to start using fat instead of sugar for fuel. This process also stabilizes your blood sugar and in turn increases your energy!
If you can’t find a fat to replace your carbohydrate, opt for proteins. Whenever possible, try to preferentially select fats as replacements (instead of proteins) for your carbohydrate sources. There’s a fancy chemical reaction called gluconeogenesis where your body is even able to turn proteins into sugars. You’re going to want to avoid that 😉
High protein diets can cause blood sugar imbalances similar to high carbohydrate diets. This is why fats are preferred to proteins when balancing blood sugar. That’s not to say you should avoid protein, just aim for no more than a palm-sized serving at each meal.
Balancing your blood sugar can be as simple as adding a fat source to your carbohydrates. For example, if your blood sugar is moderately affected by white potatoes, try adding a fat source like butter to them to help stabilize your blood sugar even more.
What to replace your carbohydrate sources with
So, you’ve identified 5 days worth of food that robs your energy. Below, I list my favorite healthy fat substitutions for common carbohydrates. Please share any of your favorite substitutions in the Facebook group.
Fats for breakfast:
- Bacon
- Eggs
- Sausage
- Avocados
- Coconut milk/cream
- Heavy cream
- High-fat yogurt
- Nuts + seeds (hemp, chia, pumpkin)
- MCT oil
Fats for Lunch:
- Fish
- Beef
- Pork
- Olives
- Oils – olive, avocado, coconut, MCT
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Avocados
- Nut butter
- Bone broth
Fats for dinner:
- Butter
- Fish
- Chicken
- Beef
- Pork
The simplest way to add fat to your diet
When you’re just beginning to remove the foods that make you tired, it can feel overwhelming. All your go-to recipes no longer work. You’re having to go through cookbooks again and again. And you probably just don’t have time for this.
Here’s the simplest solution:
- Remove the carbohydrate source(s) from your diet that negatively affects your blood sugar.
- These guys are out. Forever. Your body doesn’t tolerate them.
- Add something called C8 MCT oil to any meal that you have to remove a carbohydrate. The MCT oil will keep you feeling full (for hours) and it will have a stabilizing effect on your blood sugar.
- MCT oil is the perfect energizing food.
With MCT in the mix, you can now take your time to change your family’s nutrition. MCT oil acts as a crutch to help you makes the transition from a high carbohydrate diet to a high-fat diet.