Sugar Crash: Part 1 - Highs and Lows
The Midday Slump
Everyone knows it: a carbohydrate-rich lunch, maybe a soft drink with it, or something sweet from the snack bar. Only a short time later, as soon as you're back at your desk, comes the crash with sudden tiredness and concentration problems. What happens in our body, and how can we counteract it?
Our Body's Response to Sugar Bombs
The human body produces the hormone insulin in the pancreas to shuttle sugar from the blood into our cells, where it is needed for energy production. When we suddenly supply our body with large amounts of sugar, for example, an energy drink (250ml can - about 27g of sugar, equivalent to 9 sugar cubes), a packaged smoothie (330ml bottle - about 36g of sugar, equivalent to 12 sugar cubes), or other foods with a particularly high glycemic index, our body tries to handle these large amounts of sugar with a special response.
Reactive Hypoglycemia:
From Sugar Rush to Sugar Crash
Our body tries to cope with this excessive amount of sugar by producing an oversupply of insulin. This leads to a short energy boost in the body, also known as a "sugar rush."
This brief high is quickly followed by a low, the so-called "sugar crash," which sets in about 30-120 minutes after sugar intake. Due to the high insulin release, blood sugar drops dramatically below the baseline level (rebound effect). Hypoglycemic symptoms such as a drastic drop in performance, sudden tiredness, or sluggishness - often worse than before the sugar intake - are the result.
Those who now make the mistake of reaching for the next sugar bomb to compensate should be warned: The more often this process is triggered in the body, the shorter the path to severe health impacts from obesity to type 2 diabetes.
Break the Cycle - Stay Productive through Healthy Regeneration and Exercise
To promote your mental and physical performance, you should not rely on sugar bombs but focus on moving and strengthening the body's healthy regeneration. This is achieved by supplying the right micronutrients (e.g., choline and L-cysteine for the liver and brain) and essential B vitamins (e.g., pantothenic acid and folic acid for mental performance) that our regeneration cycles need to function optimally.
More information on different types of sugar, their glycemic index, and how to recognize and avoid unnecessary sugar will soon be available on DR.OWL's NutriHealth Blog.
Health through intelligent nutrition - DR.OWL NutriHealth