Diabetes is a disease where your body doesn’t regulate your blood sugar levels well 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
And diabetic meds only make the regulation more complex. Your body doesn’t “know” that you have diabetes so it is constantly trying to keep your blood sugar up while the meds are trying to bring it down.
Should diabetics eat on a schedule?
Eating regularly helps with this battle between your disease and the meds that are trying to help you. It’s a good idea to eat about every 4 to 5 hours to maintain a good blood sugar range.
That schedule includes full meals and snacks. So, if you wake up and start eating about 8 am with breakfast, noon or 1 pm for lunch, between 5 to 7 pm for dinner, and a snack at 9 to 11 pm before hitting the sack for the night.
This schedule keeps glucose, the blood sugar, from dipping too low while your natural insulin secretion and your meds keep it from rising too high.
Skipping meals isn’t really a good option for a diabetic. Missed meals allow your blood sugar to dip which really adds to the tug-of-war between your meds and your disease.
Popular diets like intermittent fasting can lead to hypoglycemia in type 1 and poorly controlled sugar in type 2 diabetics unless you are very diligent about the rest of your meals throughout the rest of the day.
Your body needs your blood sugar level to be in the normal range but the meds want to drive it down. So, your body drives it up with stored glucose or worse by stealing a piece of your muscle tissue and metabolizing it into sugar.
Blood sugar control is a 24-hour goal, not a meal-to-meal goal.
What you eat is more important than when.
Your meals or snacks should be a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This combo is the key to keeping your blood sugar level. The protein and fat slow the absorption of the carbs to blunt the blood sugar spike. Protein and fats are also more filling so you eat less.
Even your last meal, your evening snack, should be balanced with carbs, protein, and fat.
What about midnight snacks?
Hypoglycemia is a concern at night as you’re not eating for 7 to 10 hours during sleep. So, eating regularly during the day is the best insurance against this.
If you have a continuous glucose monitor, you can catch these episodes. But why have low blood sugar episodes at all?! Low blood sugar is more dangerous than high blood sugar as you seize and die very quickly if your sugar dips below 30 mg/dl.
I often tell patients that I’d rather have their blood sugar at 300 than at 30!
When should diabetics stop eating? Maybe they shouldn’t!
Eating regularly throughout your waking day can keep your blood sugar level throughout the day especially when your diet is balanced with carbs, protein, and fat. Some folks with poorer control and more severe disease may need to wake during the night to have another meal/snack to maintain these levels.
This regular meal plan is not a license to eat whatever you want, as often as you’d like.
You still need to pay attention to the total amount of food you have eaten throughout the entire 24 hours. It’s not just meal timing. You still have to pay attention to your weight, especially, your fat gain. Obesity will mess up any meal timing strategy that you start.
So, try this. Eat regularly and follow your sugars. You may be surprised at how much better you feel and how much energy you have.
Yours in empowerment,
Dr. Doug Zale
========
If you’d like to learn more about how your mindset, diet, and exercise regimen affect your type 2 diabetes, and if you’re serious about getting your sugars controlled soon, go to my Diabetic Empowerment Audio Course